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SUCCESS IN GARDENING 



"I doe hold it in the Royall Ordering 
of Gardens, there ought to be gardens for 
all the months of the year; in which sev- 
erally things of beauty may be there in 
season." 

— Bacon. 




A ROSE ARCH, PRINCETOX. 



^ SUCCESS 
IN GARDENING 

Work in the Flower Garden 
Week by Week 



BY 
JESSIE PEABODY FROTHINGHAM 

Author of "Sea-Fighters from Drake to Farragut," 

"Sea-Wolves of Seven Shores,'' "Running 

the Gauntlet, " etc. 




NEW YORK 
DUFFIELD & COMPANY 

1913 



c. o c>Y 2^ 



3B4S3 



Copyright, 191S 
By DUFFIELD & COMPANY 



^P.l /\QdaK^^ 



TO 

MY FATHER 



PREAMBLE 

This book is full of advice. If you do not 
like advice do not read the book. But if you 
do read it, I hope you v^ill not say, as Mr. 
Warner did to " Polly " : " What might 
have become of the garden if your advice 
had been followed, a good Providence only 
knows ! " 

" Success is wholly in the gardener/* 
writes Sir William Temple. Success is not 
a cultivated flower. Do not fancy that by 
following directions, you can attain it. 
The secret of success is in you. Love has 
more to do with it than rules — love of the 
thing you are striving for. So-called in- 
tuition is a trump card, but intuition is noth- 
ing more subtle than swift understanding. 
Some would say that luck is a large element. 
There is no such thing as luck — it means 
that you have hit upon natural laws of which 
you were ignorant; and knowledge is surer. 
So the elements of success are love, under- 
standing, and knowledge, with the addition 



PREAMBLE 

of work and will : the determination to suc- 
ceed. 

Flowers grow for those who love them. 
Like children, animals, and all of Nature's 
creatures whose instinct is stronger than 
their intellect (and I do not include women 
in this category), they respond uncon- 
sciously to affection. 

When engaging with my publisher to 
gather week by week the fruits of our gar- 
den experience I was particularly enjoined 
to be practical, not literary; to offer facts, 
not fancies; to converse soberly on plants 
and fertilizers, not to sing of the intoxication 
of Spring; to tell, not the delights of a gar- 
den, but how to make a garden. And, so 
far as is humanly possible, this will be the 
plan of the book — to offer practical sug- 
gestions to beginners who are wholly igno- 
rant of gardening. 

Those who know about gardens will find 
nothing new; to the initiated, the book will 
serve merely as a weekly reminder. And 
for this week by week arrangement of the 
work I assume complete accountability, and 
am ready to bear censure and criticism. It 
will rarely come out right. It ought to 
work, and would, if we owned such a thing 



PREAMBLE 

as a climate. But with our volatile Ameri- 
can weather the most one can expect is to 
hit the mark once in five years. Still, I 
expect my arrangement to be exceedingly 
popular, because it assumes, under existing 
conditions, a large degree of intelligence on 
the part of the reader and gardener. He 
must use his brains. I am offering him 
merely an ingenious mechanism — a gauge 
to be moved backward or forward according 
to the differences of place, soil, latitude, alti- 
tude, rain-fall, the idiosyncrasies of the sea- 
son, the whims of the weather, the pranks 
of the mad-cap months, and of capricious 
spring who plays hide and seek with them. 

This is not a loophole to escape condemna- 
tion, for so great an authority as John Bur- 
roughs says : " From what fact or event 
shall one really date the beginning of Spring? 
The little piping frogs usually furnish a 
good starting point. One Spring I heard the 
first note on the 6th of April; the next on 
the 27th of February. ... In fact, all 
signs and phases of life in the early season 
are very capricious, and are earlier or later 
just as some local or exceptional circum- 
stance favours or hinders." 

The mean average has been set, like the 



EREAMBLE 

weather reports, to fit the latitude of New 
Jersey and Eastern New York. Spring be- 
gins in Washington four or five weeks 
earlier and gradually sweeps her beflowered 
robes northward and westward. She 
reaches the Middle West and New England 
about a month after her visit to us in New 
Jersey., And it takes her some weeks longer 
to climb the hills. 

The Garden Magazine, one of our safest 
guides, tells us to allow *' six days' difference 
for every hundred miles of latitude." This 
is a good average, although, taking New 
York as a pivot, I should be inclined to allow 
a little less than a week going towards the 
West and North, and somewhat more than 
a week moving to the South. In other 
words the further south you go the greater 
the difference, the further north and west, 
the smaller the difference. Going up in the 
air, one can allow a week for every five hun- 
dred feet of altitude. Even these mathe- 
matical calculations are subject to the intelli- 
gence of the gardener, and experience is the 
best teacher. 

The suggestions in this volume are based 
mainly on my father's day-book of the gar- 
den, in which he noted month by month 



PREAMBLE 

what, where, when and how to plant and 
transplant, changes to be made, his plans and 
purchases, the firms from whom he ordered, 
and many suggestive hints drawn from ob- 
servation. They are also based on our own 
experience in following his work, and in 
hearing him talk about flowers and plants. 
He loved flowers, and they grew for him. 
He was a successful gardener. My father, 
in fact, is the real author of this book, as he 
was the builder of the garden where I 
learned whatever I know about gardening. 

J. P. F. 

HoRTus Inclusus, 
Princeton, New Jersey. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preamble i 

JANUARY 

First Week : How to plan a garden — The 
garden miap 3 

Second Week: The garden enclosure — ^Walls 
and fences — Plants for hedges, evergreens, 
flowering shrubs 9 

Third Week: The planting near the house — 
Vines on porches and walls — Massing 
shrubs and plants around foundation . . 18 

Fourth Week: Planning the boundary plant- 
ing — Open spaces — Flower borders — Shrub- 
beries .26 

FEBRUARY 

First Week : Planning a formal garden — A 
rose garden — Italian gardens 35 

Second Week : Planning a mid-summer gar- 
den—Colour arrangements — Treatment of 
annuals 48 

Third Week: A list of garden tools— Send- 
ing for flower catalogues — A list of nurser- 
ies and seed dealers 58 

Fourth Week : Ordering plants for spring 
planting — A suggestive list of flowering 
trees, shrubs, perennial plants, roses, tu- 
bers and bulbs, vines, aquatics .... 67 

MARCH 

First Week: Pruning trees, roses, and fall- 
flowering shrubs — Root-pruning as a prep- 
aration for transplanting — Best way to keep 
manure 79 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Second Week: Making flower beds — Prepara- 
tion of soil — ^Repairing and fertilizing old- 
established lawns 87 

Third Week : Spraying for San Jose scale — 
Repairing drives and paths — Enriching the 
nursery bed 94 

Fourth Week: Winter mulching taken off — 
Early planting of rhododendrons — Perenni- 
als divided — Raising seed indoors . . . lOO 

APRIL 

First Week : Uncovering borders — Poles for 
climbers — Planting perennials outdoors — ' 
Grading and preparation of new lawn . . 109 

Second Week : Planting miagnolias and azal- 
eas — Perennials — Lilies for spring plant- 
ing — Two hardy biennials 119 

Third Week: Roses — ^Preparation of the beds 
and planting — Position for roses — Pruning 
roses — Use of pot-plants — Spring planting 
of evergreens 127 

Fourth Week: Sowing seeds of annuals out- 
doors — ^Pansies, poppies, etc. — Hardy chrys- 
anthemum's — Transplanting shrubs — Spray- 
ing roses 135 

MAY 

First Week: Treatment and planting of irises 
— Flowering dogwood, crab, peach, almond — 
Uncovering rhododendrons — Liquid manure 
on tree-peonies — Planting aquatics . . . 141 

Second Week: The use of vines — Annual 
climbers — Perennial and evergreen vines — 
Colour combinations for climbers . . . 152 

Third Week: Perennials raised from seed- 
Transplanting annuals — Uncovering water 
garden — How to keep the garden neat . .160 

Fourth ^ Week : Small pieces of garden work, 
liquid manure, weeds in lawn, transplanting, 
etc. — Spraying for the elm' bug ,.. . . .166 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 
JUNE 

First Week: Exterminating rose bugs — Oyster 
shell scale — Raot-pruning trees — Raising 
shrubs from cuttings 173 

Second Week: Planting gladioli — Varieties of 
gladioli — ^Annuals transplanted from seed- 
bed — Pruning evergreen hedges .... 180 

Third Week: When and how to prune flow- 
ering shrubs — Second spraying of elms . 186 

Fourth Week: Varieties and planting of dah- 
lias — Time to order Holland grown bulbs . 192 

JULY 

First Week: Pleasures and duties of a sum- 
mer garden — Mulching rhododendron beds 199 

Second Week: Weeding and watering — Cut- 
ting in and spraying roses — Maple scale — 
Biennials and hollyhocks 205 

Third Week: Living in our garden — Use of 
parches as outdoor rooms — Mulching of hy- 
brid tea roses 211 

Fourh Week: Water gardens — How to build 
a basin — Soil for aquatics 217 

AUGUST 

First Week: Grafting and budding — ^Wood 
used for stock — Method of budding . . . 227 

Second Week : Summer work in the garden — 

Fall catalogues of trees and plants . . . 232 

Third Week: Orders for fall planting — Sug- 
gestive lists of bulbs, perennial plants, 
shrubs, evergreens 22)7 

Fourth Week : How to plant evergreens — 
Varieties for hedges — Pruning privet . . 248 

SEPTEMBER 

First Week : Grading and preparation of 
ground for new lawn — Fall flowering bulbs 
— Lilium candidum 255 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Second Week: Planting perennials — Poppies, 
phloxes, delphinium, columbines — Sowing 
pansy seeds 262 

Third Week: Narcissi, their varieties and 

where to plant — Naturalising bulbs . . . 270 

Fourth Week: Peonies — Best varieties — Di- 
viding perennials — Hyacinths 277 

OCTOBER 

First Week: Snowdrops and crocuses — A 
plea against bedding beds — Chionodoxas, 
scillas and other small bulbs 287 

Second Week: American grown lilies — Plant- 
ing lilies and irises — Varieties of bulbous 
rooted irises 295 

Third Week: Varieties and planting of flcrw- 
ering shruts 301 

Fourth Week: Moving large trees — Varieties 
of deciduous and fruit trees for fall plant- 
ing — Lifting tubers and other fall work. . 309 

NOVEMBER 

First and Second Weeks: Pruning, raking 
leaves, and winter mulch — Varieties of tu- 
lips 31S 

Third and Fourth Weeks: Foreign grown 
lilies — Covering beds — Fall spraying — De- 
scription of compost heap 320 

DECEMBER 

Plans for future work — Window and porch 
boxes — Plants for rockeries and wall gar- 
dens — The wild flower garden .... 325 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Rose Arch, Princeton Frontispiece 

Rose Wall, "Hortus Inclusus". Facing Page 17 

Terrace, Killarney House. Ireland.. " " 37 

The Garden at "Prospect," the resi- 
dence of the President, Prince- 
ton University " " 5*7 

Iris Walk, Fiesole " " 93 

Border of Delphinium " " 119 

Upper and Lower Formal Garden at 

Lyme, Showing Byzantine Piece " " 127 

Pink Dogwood, "Hortus Inclusus".- " " 143 

View from "Prospect," seen from 

the Terrace , " " 151 

A Double Garden with Grass Walks 

at Lyme " " 165 

Good Planting for a Narrow Space: 

LakeComo " " 199 

Cottage Garden at Killarney " " 205 

By the Wayside in Ireland " " 211 

Grass Walk, Winnetka " " 213 

Good Vistas for View, but Poor Group- 
ing and Stiff Lines " " 257 

Entrance to Formal Garden, Killar- 
ney House " " 317 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

JANUARY 

First Week 

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so 
like to Covetousness, as that I might be master at 
last of a small house and large garden, and there 
dedicate the remainder of my life to the Culture of 
them and study of Nature." 

— Abraham Cowley. 

*'I felt a wish for one small lot 
Of meadow land, a garden plot, 
Beside a clump of wood, and near 
My door a rivulet running clear. 
This sum' of all imagined bliss 
The Gods have given." 

— Horace (The Satires). 

In the winter, by the fireside, we can plan 
our garden. Pencil, paper, a foot measure, 
and a little imagination are all the imple- 
ments we need. 

Gardens that grow, border by border, and 
develop year by year, are the most success- 
ful; they are individual, grow as we grow, 
have a meaning — they mean us. Like 

3 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

books and pictures, they express our person- 
ality, and would miss their subtlest charm if 
ready-made. They are an eye, a window 
through which the world may see our taste, 
love, likings — the metal of our mind, 
whether we are commonplace or original, 
imitators or creators. 

At the start, we may distrust our amateur 
knowledge, and prefer to depend on profes- 
sional experience. But, if we love flowers, 
sooner or later that first draught of a garden 
will be modified to suit our individual taste 
and to express our predilection. 

The smallest garden must have a plan, 
even if the plan is modified or developed in 
process of growth. And the first element 
in a successfully planned garden is congruity. 
The style of the garden must agree with the 
style of the house, and should be adapted 
to the size, situation, and surroundings of 
the lot, to the lay of the land, the climate and 
soil. 

It is the small lot of the country town or 
suburb that cries out emphatically for at- 
tention, that is least understood, most com- 
mon, most American, most neglected, 
and abandoned to the fatal grip of 
the commonplace. The neat grass yard, the 
4 



JANUARY 

narrow, straight walk to the immaculate 
front door, the bare walls of the frame- 
house, have ruined the reputation of the 
suburb. The word " suburb " ought to con- 
jure up a picture of rural loveliness, instead 
of ugliness, and towns like Bryn Mawr prove 
to us that it is possible to make a country 
town a place of charm and beauty. 

To every one living outside the brick and 
stone limits of a city, I would say, have a 
garden, and whether it covers twelve feet or 
twelve acres, let it be original — not in the 
sense of being eccentric, fantastic, or gro- 
tesque, but of being individual and signifi- 
cant. If the lot is too small for a garden, 
then plant the front yard and back yard, and 
make them as picturesque as the wayside 
cottages of Ireland and Wales. Any house 
may be made less ordinary, and any land 
more interesting by planting. And even the 
back yard of a city house may be trans- 
formed into a hidden garden. 

In planning for a garden, lay out first the 
main features of the place or lot. With 
paper and pencil, mark where the house 
stands, or is to stand, the walks, driveways, 
entrance, and boundary line; indicate where 
the clothes yard and loam heap are to be 
5 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

placed; the vegetable garden perhaps, and 
the stable, garage, or outhouses. It will be 
a help to make the map to scale. 

When these main points are settled, stand 
mentally and imaginatively on the spot that 
marks the house, which is the pivot or easel, 
so to speak, from which to work, the point- 
of-view from which to look at the picture. 
Then start from the outside lines to com- 
pose the picture, working inwards. Plant 
the boundaries, marking where to set out 
shrubs, trees, and vines, and note the 
names of the varieties, so as to make good 
colour combinations, and succession of 
bloom. The advantage of using a pencil is 
that the plan will be changed in process of 
growth, some names will be erased and 
others substituted. 

When this irregular and broken line of 
foliage and flowering shrubs for the back- 
ground has been sketched in, the next care 
will be the foreground. If there should 
chance to be a good distant view from any 
side of the lot, that side should be left open^ 
either by arranging low planting, or leaving 
vistas between the shrubbery. No one wants 
to shut himself in from a beautiful outlook, 
or make his horizon narrower than is neces- 
6 



JANUARY 

sary. But if neighbouring houses have al- 
ready limited his prospect, then he may ami- 
ably retaliate on promiscuous propinquity by 
shrouding it in green ; for privacy one must 
have, if not the large privacy of nature, then 
the restricted aloofness of one's figtree. 

On at least one side of the house there 
should be an open sward of grass; keep the 
centre free, and this will give a sense of 
space and expanse ; mass the planting around 
the edges of the open lawn. 

The flower borders will follow the back- 
ground of foliage or fence; then work in- 
wards with beds banked in green, but always 
keep as much as possible the idea of space 
and of glimpses into something beyond, if 
not into the open country, then into a close 
or cover of the garden itself. This givesi 
perspective. 

Next mark the paths, if there are to be 
any, and lay out the border planting for the 
drives and walks. Turf paths are the most 
harmonious ; the lawn and garden should be 
cut as little as possible by the hard white 
lines of gravel walks. Then arrange 
to plant out the back door, service 
road, garage, clothes yard, and other unses- 
thetic parts of the establishment which need 
7 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING^ 

to be eliminated from view. To hide them 
from both the house and the street will claim 
considerable ingenuity, so as not to make the 
intention too palpable, or the screen too stiff 
and solid. The trees, shrubs, and vines in- 
tended to disguise what is behind may be 
used as a background and framework for 
flowers. 

The last touch to be added to the garden 
map will be the planting close to the house; 
but this will be one of the first pieces of gar- 
den work to start when one begins to dig 
in March. 

Here then are the four main steps to be 
taken : first, enclose the lot ; next, plant close 
to the house; then around the boundary 
lines ; and last between the boundary and the 
house. 

This plan is adapted to the usual lot in a 
country town, two hundred feet deep, by 
fifty to two or three hundred feet wide. 
And if there are any old trees standing on 
the lot, the owner is to be congratulated. 
They should be cherished and protected. 



SECOND WEEK 

'*The garden is best to be square, encompassed 
on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge." 

— Bacon. 

"When you have discovered the best Land, and 
pleased yourself with the compleatest Form you can 
imagine for your Garden; yet without a good Fence 
to preserve it from several evils that usually annoy 
it your labour is but lost." 

— John Worlidge. (1675.) 

A garden, to be a real garden, must be en-' 
closed, entered by a gate, if not tangible, 
then imaginary, and opened by an equally 
mythical key. In other words a garden 
must have the qualities of privacy, mystery, 
and seclusion. On a large place or park the 
garden alone may be shut in — the ideal ar- 
rangement. But the majority of us must 
adapt our ideals to a small plot of ground, 
and enclose the whole space, including house 
and other buildings. Before starting a gar- 
den, then, we must plan our enclosure. 

A few years ago I should have challenged 
dislike, disapproval, or disfavour, by the 
9 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

mere mention in this democratic land of that 
obnoxious word *' wall," and I will not de- 
fine the feelings created by our own shingled 
enclosure when first it rose to a height of six 
feet. Happily those feelings have since 
largely, though I fear not wholly, disap- 
peared. The wall has proved its right to ex- 
ist. 

But there is one advantage that fences and 
hedges have over walls — they do not irri- 
tate the public by a too conspicuous and can- 
did desire to be private; they do not create 
criticism, for a transparent seclusion is less 
aggressive than an impenetrable aloofness, 
and a privacy, I had almost said a propriety, 
of four years' growth seems to be less offen- 
sive than one of four weeks. Probably the 
sudden appearance of an Athena, full-armed 
and full-grown, among us would be resented, 
since we were once obliged to wear swad- 
dling clothes. But if the public demands a 
dead-level, then we must renounce gardens. 

There is nothing that flowers love better 
than a wall, or a screen; it protects them 
from wind and cold, their blooms are larger, 
their colours more vivid against the dark 
green of the hedge, or the warm tints of the 
wall. 

10 



JANUARY 

What we select for our enclosure must de- 
pend on the extent of our ground and size 
of our house; congruity should decide the 
material. It may be stone or brick, stucco 
or shingles, according to the material of the 
house. All but the wooden wall will be 
covered with vines, ivy, clematis, honey- 
suckle. With a wooden enclosure, the vines 
must be trained on wire netting, or poles set 
close to the wall, but not on the wall itself. 
For this reason a stone wall may be made 
more picturesque on the street side, than one 
of shingles. 

Around a fifty or one hundred foot lot, a 
hedge or low fence is the most appropriate 
enclosure. Privet may be taken out of the 
ordinary and become almost distinguished 
by proper cutting and clipping. Cut it 
round-topped like box, or let it spread in a 
wide flare at the bottom, and clip it to a 
sharp edge on top, like a triangle standing on 
Its base. Four to five or even six feet is a 
good height. If a wall-effect is wanted, flat 
on the sides and top, cut the privet to the 
ground one or two years after planting, so 
that it will throw up strong shoots from the 
bottom; if it is afterwards trimmed flat on 
the sides twice a year, it will form a solid 
II 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

wall. In any case it is well to prune back 
a privet hedge rigorously the first two years. 

California privet is hardy in the middle 
and southern states, especially at the sea- 
shore, where it flourishes with unusual lux- 
uriance. Plants, from two and a half to 
three feet high, sell from five to eight dollars 
per hundred. They are usually planted in a 
double row, twelve or fifteen inches apart, 
but the rows should be at least fifteen to 
eighteen inches apart. 

Ibota, Japanese privet is the hardiest of 
the different species, and succeeds in the 
north and northwest. Kegel's variety of the 
Ibota is drooping in habit, and if left un- 
trimmed makes a graceful, free-growing 
hedge. Strong, two-year old plants, two to 
three feet high, sell for ten to fifteen dollars 
per hundred.^ They may be planted in a 
single row, eighteen inches apart, which 
makes them no more expensive, for a hedge, 
than the California privet. 

Box should be kept for edging beds and 
walks in a formal garden. The price varies 
from five dollars per hundred for small six- 

1 Elliott Nursery Co., 336 Fourth Ave., Pittsburg-, 
Pa. ; Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N, Y. ; Thomas 
Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa. 
(Meehan's Ibota Privet i=! $17.50 per hundred). 
12 



JANUARY 

inch plants, to thirty-five cents and seventy- 
five cents for single plants, two to three 
feet high. These larger bushes are effec- 
tive v^hen used to mark the corners and 
ends of formal beds or of the lower box 
edging. And, remember, box must never 
be pruned. 

For an evergreen hedge, the hemlock 
(both the Tsuga canadensis and caroliniana) 
is one of the most satisfactory; it makes 
a dense, hardy screen, feathery and graceful, 
and keeps its beauty longer than the Norway 
spruce; it is, in fact, the most beautiful of 
the evergreens for hedges. Trees from one 
and a half to two and a half feet, are quoted 
at twenty-five to thirty-five and fifty dollars 
per hundred.^ Costing half this price is the 
American arbor-vitse (Thuja occidentalis), 
slim and upright growing. It makes a 
thin, straight hedge, and is useful where a 
flat barrier or windbreak is needed, but it 
has a tendency to die out or grow spindling 
at the bottom. 

The white spruce makes an effectual wind- 

2 Ellwanger & Barry, Mt. Hope Nurseries, Roches- 
ter, N. Y.; Elliott Nursery Co., Pittsburg, Pa.; 
Bloodgood Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y. ; Thomas 
Meehan & Son's, Germantown, Phila., Pa. ($75-00 
per hundred). 

13 



SUCCESS IN GiVRDENING 

break, and the dwarf Austrian pine is also 
good for bushy, low shields, although forty 
years is said to be the limit of its beauty. 
With more of beauty than either of these as ' 
a background is biota orientalis, the Chinese 
arborvitse. In the South, Euonymus Ja- 
ponica (twenty dollars per hundred) is used 
as a hedge plant. 

Several varieties of retinospora, Japanese 
cedar, make a beautiful hedge, especially 
the plumosa which lends itself to clipping. 
It is more unusual than the hemlock and 
also more expensive. Uncommon, too, are 
the Oriental spruce and Japanese yew 
(Taxus cuspidata), both hardy evergreens, 
but at present rather expensive for a hedge. 
Of these many hedge plants I should favour 
privet, hemlock, spruce, and Japanese yew. 

Ornamental, flowering hedges are espe- 
cially adapted to country houses occupied 
only from May to November. The hy- 
drangea paniculata grandiflora makes a 
beautiful low-growing summer hedge, with 
its luxuriant foliage, and its great white 
heads of bloom, flowering in August and 
September, and looking like a premature 
snow bank. They should be cut back, in 
early April or late March, to about 
14 



JANUARY 

one-half of the new growth, and fer- 
tilised with bone meal; if planted in 
a double row (the plants in one row opposite 
the spaces in the second row) they will form 
a thick and picturesque low-growing hedge. 
Our hydrangea hedge in Vermont is two 
hundred feet long, the double row of plants 
being set about eighteen inches apart, and 
the mass of immense, pointed, drooping 
heads look like driven snow in the moon- 
light. Plants two to three feet high cost 
two dollars per ten, or fifteen per hundred.^ 
They need no mulching in winter, except a 
thick layer of well-rotted manure put on in 
the fall, 

Rosa rugosa makes an effective ever- 
green hedge, with its display of shiny, dark 
green foliage, red and white blooms like 
wild roses, flowering in July and August, and 
in the fall, large scarlet berries ; it is an all- 
round, versatile, rich-looking plant. The 
cost is two and a half dollars per ten or 
fifteen per hundred, for strong, two and a 
half foot plants.* 

Spring flowering shrubs may be used for 
irregular hedges, planted in groups so that 

3 Elliott Nursery Co., Pittsburg, Pa. 
*Bloodgood Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y. 

15 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

part of the hedge will be in bloom from 
month to month. Forsythia, exochorda 
grandi flora, Japanese quince, Japanese bar- 
berry, lilacs, deutzia crenata, candidissima 
and gracilis, Japanese snowball or viburnum 
plicatum, weigela Candida, spiraea van 
Houttei and pruni folia, and hibiscus or 
althea — some or most of these will make a 
varied hedge that will bloom from April 
to September. Medium sized plants are 
priced at one and a half dollars to two and 
a half dollars per ten. 

This enclosing of the entire lot may not 
entirely satisfy one's ideal of a secluded gar- 
den, of a place apart for quiet pleasure and 
privacy. When one is loath to share the 
garden even with one's own front yard, a 
barrier may be devised of shrubs or vine cov- 
ered arbour — what Bacon called an " alley " 
and we name a " pergola " — between the 
garden side we turn to our friends, and the 
public side we turn to the world. Pergola, 
and shrubs massed in irregular fashion, will 
serve as a protection and shield, without 
cutting the lot into two parts with too 
straight a line. The inhospitable line of the 
arbour may be broken by a gateway 
wreathed in wistaria through which some 
i6 



JANUARY 

may enter in person, and others, less fav- 
oured, in fancy. 

Hedges, too, may be used to cut the lot 
and enclose certain parts of the garden, if 
one is careful to leave an open expanse on 
one side. This hedge within a hedge should 
be of privet, box, or shrubs, rather than of 
hemlock, or other coniferous evergreens. 



17 



THIRD WEEK 

"At all time and in all ages gardens have been 
amongst the objects of the greatest interest to man- 
kind, and the gardener's art has contributed to the 
delight of all men in their time." 

— Dickens. 

Where shall we begin to plant in a small 
garden? The most obvious place to start 
borders, and therefore the one most to be 
avoided, is on either side of the straight walk 
leading from the street to the house. 
Everything we plant must form a part of the 
whole composition, and have a meaning. 
Our first thought, then, will be to make a 
background and framework for the house. 

If the garden is to be picturesque, the 
house may be bedded in green and in bloom. 
A formal garden, which would be the ad- 
junct to a stately stone or brick house, would 
naturally call for a more severe treatment 
around the house, close-growing vines like 
ivy, and little or no colour. A frame house 
with beauty of line — and there are not 
many so blest — must have restrained plant- 
i8 



JANUARY 

ing of such free-growing vines as wistaria, 
and be accentuated with discreet massing of 
shrubs. But the common run of frame 
houses will be improved by luxurious 
climbers, profuse bloom, and treatment in 
detail. 

For a house standing on level ground, 
plan a bed along the south and west sides, 
five or six feet deep, sweeping around the 
corner, and then spreading out in a curve 
eight feet deep at the northwest angle. 
Close to the house plant vines and climbers 
■ — roses, wistaria, or clematis — and ar- 
range to have a succession of bloom. 

Do not allow the climbers to grow around 
the columns of the porch, or on the side of 
the house; but attach heavy wire to iron 
staples, set in front of the columns and at 
intervals along the wall. The staples must 
be set three feet deep, below frost; and the 
upper end of the wire fastened to strong 
hooks in the roof of the porch, or under the 
eaves of the house. 

There are many beautiful varieties of 
climbing roses. The wichuraiana and its 
hybrids are some of the most satisfactory: 
Wichuraiana (white single), Jersey Beauty 
(pale yellow, single), Evergreen Gem (buff, 
19 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

double), Manda's Triumph (white, dou- 
ble). Gardenia, very charming (yellow 
buds, cream, double flowers). Any of 
these in strong two-year-old plants, are sold 
for three dollars a dozen. These may be 
had in pots; they are more expensive, but 
grow more rapidly. Dorothy Perkins is a 
lovely double, shell-pink rose, and the Daw- 
son (double-pink) is the earliest and most 
profuse bloomer, both at three dollars a doz- 
en. Other beautiful varieties are Lady Gay 
(cerise pink, passing to white), Tausend- 
schon (large soft pink, changing to car- 
mine), Hiawatha (single, brilliant ruby- 
carmine), White Dorothy, and the Ameri- 
can Pillar (large single pink), all at three 
dollars per dozen; Christine Wright (large, 
double, wild-rose pink) at one dollar each.^ 
The well-known Crimson Rambler is no 
longer the favourite that it once was ; other 
roses, of better colour and more perfect 
foliage, have superseded it. But if a rose 
of that character is wanted get the im- 

lEllwanger & Barry, Mount Hope Nurseries, 
Rochester, N. Y. (one of the most extensive and 
reliable rose growers, especially for field plants) ; 
Th. Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Phila., Pa. (fine, 
pot-grown plants) ; Elliott Nursery Co-, Pittsburg, 
Pa.; George H. Peterson, Fair Lawn, New Jersey. 

20 



JANUARY 

proved Philadelphia Rambler and plant a 
white rose with it, that will bloom at the 
same time, like White Dorothy. 

Wherever climbing roses are planted, at 
the foot of porch columns, poles, or trel- 
lises, have three of a kind, to ensure thick 
growth; or plant two of one variety and 
two of another, to bloom in succession. In 
three years they will have grown to the sec- 
ond story, and in five years they will reach 
the top of twenty-foot poles. 

Around the southwest angle of the house, 
have a low trellis of cedar poles, or iron 
stakes, and wire, and plant Dawson roses 
to bloom the first of June, Gardenia, and 
Dorothy Perkins, to continue the bloom into 
July. 

On the south side, against the house, 
plant yellow jasmine (nudiflorum), which 
is hardy south of New York. This low 
creeper will have finished blooming long be- 
fore the leaves of the rose vines even start 
to unfold, and anywhere between the mid- 
dle of February and the end of April the 
mass of its star-like blossoms will cover the 
bare shoots. During one unusually warm 
season our vines were a shower of bloom 
for two months, beginning in January. 

21 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Later, the foliage makes a good background 
for bulbs and flowering plants. 

Continue the climbing roses around the 
south side, either the Gardenia and Dorothy 
Perkins, or any of the wichuraiana varie- 
ties. Instead of the rose you may prefer 
to have wistaria, either the Chinese sinen- 
sis or the beautiful Japanese multijuga, 
costing from 30cts. to 50cts. each. This, the 
most graceful, picturesque, and luscious of 
the climbers, is worth waiting for, even 
though it is the slowest grower. 

We have now covered the sides of the 
house with vines, and we will return to the 
northwest angle to plan the planting in front 
of the climbers. In the eight foot curving 
bed, mass rhododendrons alone; no other 
plant will blend with their intense colour and 
strong foliage; they would kill any bed- 
fellow. Some of the best varieties of the 
hybrid rhododendrons are the Album 
elegans. Album grandiflorum, Atrosan- 
guineum, Blandyanum, Lady Clermont, 
Delicatissimum, Grandiflorum, H. W. Sar- 
gent, Speciosum; all of these blend in tint. 
Strong plants, from eighteen inches to two 
feet are quoted at $1.50 to $1.75 each.^ 

2 Messrs. Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown, 
22 



JANUARY 

Rhododendrons are one of the greatest 
luxuries of the garden. 

Less expensive massing plants are the 
rosa rugosa, the rose and the alba, and its 
hybrids, Nova Zembla, Blanc double de 
Coubert, Madame Georges Bruant, a dou- 
ble white variety, Agnes Emily Carman, 
Conrad F. Meyer. The usual price is $2.50 
to $3.00 per ten. Another effective massing 
plant, not an evergreen, is the hydrangea 
paniculata grandiflora, at $2.50 per ten; 
these are more suited to a summer garden, 
as they bloom in August. 

We want to select the choicest flowers 
for the beds close to the house, and leave 
the heavier plants for distant colour effect 
against the hedge or fence, such as peonies, 
hollyhocks, golden glow, dahlias, cosmos. 
Near the house, on the west, we shall want 
to plant a magnolia stellata near the south 
angle, and then fill the bed with delphinium 
and columbines at the back, narcissus 
poeticus, daffodils, and gesneriana tulips, 
white and red, and along the front a row of 
low blue scillas and chionodoxas, white 
crocuses and snowflakes.^ 

Philadelphia, Pa.; Bloodgood Nurseries, Flushing, 
N. Y. 
3 For bulbs; Henry A Dreer, 714 Chestnut St., 
23 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Keep the bed on the south side for tea 
roses, and, at the back against the green, 
have a row of the beautiful pastel Darwin 
tulips; some of the low bulbs, too, can be 
planted on the front edge. Iris reticulata and 
lavender crocuses. None of these bulbs 
will flower when the roses are in bloom. 

On the east side of the house I would 
have, not a border of flowers, but flowering 
shrubs planted separately or in groups of 
three, and set in holes two or three feet in 
diameter prepared as carefully as a border 
— the earth dug out to a depth of two 
feet, and filled in with loam mixed with 
manure. Have three or four different va- 
rieties of shrubs that will bloom in succes- 
sion: a group of three forsythia, an 
exochorda, deutzia gracilis, hydrangea 
paniculata grandiflora, a choice althea, a 
group of bronze button chrysanthemums 
for fall blooming — any or all of these will 
make a frame for the house. 

The north side will be more difficult to 
treat, especially if it should chance to be 
the front of the house. Hall's Japan 

Philadelphia, Pa.; E. J. Krug, 110-116 Broadway, 
New York City (agent of Dutch firm, van Tuber- 
gen). 



JANUARY 

honeysuckle is a vine that will grow any- 
where, although it will not climb as high on 
the north. Against the house may be 
planted rhododendron maximum; these 
cost about one dollar each, or less in quan- 
tities. In southern states, the rhododen- 
dron catawbiense will flourish, but in the 
north it is not as reliable as the maximum. 
In front of these, mass yucca filamentosa, 
two dollars and a half per dozen. And if 
colour is wanted, the bed may be edged 
with German iris. 

A house that is placed on a slight rise, 
or an abrupt knoll, calls for a simpler and 
broader grouping; there should be less de- 
tail. Looking up, we see mass; looking 
down, we see detail. For vines, the wis- 
taria and the evergreen euonymus radi- 
cans (south of New Jersey) will be prefer- 
able. There should be no delicate flowers 
like narcissi, columbines, or the low bulbs; 
but iris, the German and the Japanese, will 
be effective, and especially the gorgeous 
Oriental poppies. Increase the shrubbery, 
and add spiraea van Houttei, and deutzia 
gracilis, to bloom in the spring, and altheas, 
double-white and double-pink to bloom in 
August. 

25 



FOURTH WEEK 

"A garden bower'd close 
With plaited alleys of the trailing rose, 
Long alleys falling down to twilight grots, 
Or opening upon level plots 
Of crowned lilies, standing near 
Purple-spiked lavender : 
Whither in after life retired 
From brawling storms, 
From weary wind; 
With youthful fancy reinspired, 
We may hold converse, with all forms 
Of the many-sided mind . . ." 

— Alfred Tennyson. 

After encircling the house with flowers 
and fohage, the next step, in a plan for a 
small lot, is to treat the boundary lines. 
We want to mass the planting on the out- 
side edges, and then work inwards. We 
will suppose that a hedge or fence has been 
planned to surround and enclose the lot. 
Inside the hedge have a border on two sides, 
and a succession of irregular beds on the 
other two sides. 

The border may be continuous, but not 
straight, about five feet wide in the middle, 
26 



JANUARY 

and sweeping out in curves at the extremi- 
ties, eight or ten feet deep at the widest 
part. In these deep curves, in the corners 
of the lot, mass shrubs and greenery at the 
back, against the fence, such as exochorda; 
hibiscus; deutzia, Pride of Rochester and 
crenata rosea plena; mock orange, Phila- 
delphus grandiflorus and coronarius; Jap- 
anese snowball, known as viburnum pli- 
catum. Of lower growth, which may be 
planted, here and there, in front of the 
taller shrubs, are deutzia gracilis; spiraea 
van Houttei, sorbi folia stellipeda, and 
Thunbergii; Japanese quince. Along the 
narrower part of the border, against the 
fence, set a row of nine to twelve feet red 
cedar poles, planted well below frost, with 
wires connecting them; and plant three 
climbing roses of a kind at the foot of each 
pole — the beautiful Lord and Lady Pen- 
zance sweetbriars which will grow twelve 
feet high, and any of the wichuraiana 
roses to trail over the wires and poles. 

In front of this background of shrubs 
and vines plant tall-growing perennials, al- 
wa3^s massed in groups, not scattered here 
and there. The selection is unlimited; but 
be sure to have a mass of the lovely blue 
27 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

delphiniums, the formosum and formosum 
cselestinum, the belladonna, King of 
Delphiniums, and many other varieties. 
Plant masses of anemone Japonica, the 
alba and rubra, Whirlwind, Elegantissima, 
Geante Blanche, Queen Charlotte, Prince 
Henry; you cannot have too many of these 
lovely fall-blooming: anemones. The dif- 
ferent sections may be pointed off with a 
yucca filamentosa, or a tree-peony. And 
at the furthest end have golden glow, which 
will grow as high as eight feet if placed 
against a wind-break, with tiger lilies 
(Triginum splendens) and yellow and 
white day lilies in front, and a mass of Cal- 
ifornia poppies. 

In other sections, on the front line of the 
border, plant different varieties of iris, the 
Dutch, German, English, and Japanese, 
which will bloom in succession from April 
to July. Further on have trumpet and 
double daffodils of different varieties, the 
Emperor, and Empress, Horsfeldi, Barrii 
Conspicuus, Maximus, Stella, Silver Phoe- 
nix, Incomparable. A crowd of lilies 
should be in the border; the candidum, 
longiflorum, and speciosum album will 
mingle well with any flowers blooming at 



JANUARY 

the same time, but few of the other varieties 
will combine without a shock to the optic 
nerve, and the speciosum roseum should be 
separated from the tiger lily by the whole 
length of the border. 

Edging the border may be a carpet of 
creeping phloxes (phlox subulata), the 
alba, and the model (pink) or the G. F. 
Wilson (blue). Another effective edging 
plant is the gesneriana tulip which outlines 
the bed in vivid scarlet — too vivid to be 
seen in a mass unless mixed with white. 

On the third side of the hedge have long 
sweeping beds of different shapes, following 
the boundary line. In one bed mass lilacs 
of the choice varieties, such as, Mme. 
Casimir Perier, Belle de Nancy, Jacques 
Calot, Alba grandiflora, Congo, President 
Grevy. In another bed have flowering! 
crab, peach, and almond; further on, Mag- 
nolias, and the beautiful white and pink 
dogwood. 

On the fourth side may be beds of the 
lovely azaleas, Ghent and Mollis, and white 
flowering shrubs such as spiraea van 
Houttei, magnolia stellata, and white dog- 
wood. Here, too, one may risk a mixed 
bed of Oriental poppies and white gas plant 
29 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

[(dictamnus alba). Any of these beds may 
be edg'ed with a row of spring and autumn 
flowering bulbs, narcissus poeticus, daffo- 
dils (which will bloom before the azaleas), 
and colchicum autumnale. 

In beginning to plant between the bound- 
ary and the house, one should be sure to 
keep a free stretch of lawn on at least one 
side of the house, to give the feeling of 
space, and perspective. This lawn may be 
surrounded with trees and flowers, as with 
a frame, and to avoid stiffness let the line 
be irregular, encroaching on the grass 
sward in some places, retreating in others. 
Never plant trees and shrubs on the lawn, 
scattered here and there in a meaningless 
manner. Beautiful " specimen " trees or 
shrubs may be placed in front of the main 
planting, and look all the more distinctive 
for having a background. Whether it is 
a bush of Kegel's privet or a Koster blue 
spruce, the green framework will increase, 
not detract from the effect. 

The driveway or the walk may be out- 
lined, not with long, straight borders, but 
with a number of irregular and curving 
beds. If the driveway is long and sweep- 
ing, it may be bordered with mass-planting 
30 



JANUARY 

of green shrubbery. But the ordinary short 
approach needs nothing more than pictur- 
esque beds which give an opportunity for 
masses of rhododendrons, anemones, and 
the many gorgeous varieties of peonies, the 
Festiva Maxima, FeHx Crousse, Rubra 
superba, and Delicatissima. All but the 
rhododendrons may be edged with early 
bulbs, or summer and fall annuals. 

If any flowering plant should stand alone 
it is the rhododendron, whose superb 
beauty bears no intimate associate. From 
the intense Sargent and Atrosanguineum, 
to the delicate Album elegans and Delica- 
tissimum, they belittle any close comrade; 
they are kings and cannot be trifled with. 

In this plan I have taken a small place, 
or large lot, of about two hundred by three 
to four hundred feet. In a smaller lot, the 
same general scheme may be followed, 
merely reducing the variety of flowers. 

There are a few general rules to keep in 
mind: leave open spaces; plant around the 
house, and chiefly around the boundary; 
keep the flowers in masses, and the colours 
in harmony; do not have ordinary flowers, 
like golden glow and cosmos, when you 
can have delphiniums and anemones; do 
31 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

not let the colours clash ; do not have a gar- 
den that looks patchy, spotty, or fussy. 

If the space for planting is nothing more 
than a twelve or twenty-five foot yard in 
front of the house, make it a solid mass of 
shrubs and vines and greenery, edge the 
walk with flowers against the green, and 
have an entrancing wayside garden that 
passers-by will turn to look at. If the rows 
of small, close-set, commonplace houses, in 
our country towns and suburbs, were 
bedded in green, our streets would be bow- 
ers. It is a crime against civilisation to 
endure ugliness, when for so little expense 
of money and care, we could transform it 
into beauty. 

Those who do not wish to have the care 
of a flower garden, may plant only vines, 
shrubs, and flowering trees ; these make lit- 
tle demand after the first outlay. The 
rule for planting is the same : grow vines on 
the house and porches, shrubs at the an- 
gles and steps, along the boundary line 
and the walks. I have seen successful 
shrubberies on even a moderate sized lot, 
that screen the house and lawn, and give 
the sense of privacy. If judiciously 
planted, there will be bloom through the 
32 



JANUARY 

spring and summer. The whole list of 
flowering trees and shrubs may be used; it 
is only a question of selection and combina- 
tion with reference to colour and time of 
bloom. If the shrubs are planted in a bed 
close together, and the dead wood cut out 
every year from the inside, there will be 
little need of weeding or other care, except 
pruning after they have bloomed. 



33 



FEBRUARY 
First Week 

"The garden beds are prim and square, 
Bt)x-bordered, scenting all the air, 
And fruit-trees on espaliers crawl 
Around the high, old-fashioned wall." 

— Charles Buxton Going. 

"Musically falls the fountain; 
Twilight voices chime; 

Evening winds from down the valley- 
Stir the waters cool; 

Break the dark, empurpled shadows 
In the marble pool." 

— Richard Watson Gilder. 

A GARDEN is a setting, an adornment to a 
house. It is integral, not alien to its style. 
A queen does not dress in calico, or a peas- 
ant in purple velvet and ermine. The dress 
is the symbol of the personality. In plan- 
ning a formal garden, we must first take 
into account the character of house and 
place. Are they adapted to formal treat- 
ment? Fitness is imperative. 
35 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The house must be simple or severe in 
line, and I should like to say spacious, for 
space in my creed is one of the requisites 
of formality both in house and garden. 
But conceding space to those who are not 
of my opinion, I will merely insist that if 
the garden is small it must be as perfect 
as a sonnet, a thing of symmetry and finish 
— a little masterpiece. And we might set- 
tle this matter of size by saying that a 
large house requires a formal garden, but a 
formal garden does not inevitably demand 
a large house. I will go further and say 
that one may have, as Cowley dreamed, a 
large garden and a small house, but one 
cannot, by the rules of fitness, have a min- 
iature garden and a spacious house. 

Formality is the fit associate of a stately 
house with straight, strong lines ; of a house 
in Georgian or Colonial style, a house of 
poise, substance, and dignity, but not of a 
Queen-Ann cottage or a plain house on a 
village street. Let the cottage have a pic- 
turesque setting, the village house an old- 
fashioned frame — each to his style. 

A formal garden must have relief, back- 
ground, and proportion. Formality means 
regularity, not rigidity; balance, not stifT- 
36 



FEBRUARY 

ness; lines that are straight, but not hard. 
It is a help to study formal gardens that 
are around us, the pictures of many that 
we cannot see, and it is often easier to see 
defects at a glance, in a picture. We can 
notice what to avoid, and at what to aim. 
Objective errors are more evident than sub- 
jective mistakes. 

There are many attempts that never ar- 
rive — so-called formal gardens that have 
missed their opportunities. Some have 
been laid out on a slope, instead of being 
cut in terraces; others are agglomerations 
of petrified flower beds ; and some are with- 
out significance. 

The next point to remember in planning 
a formal garden, is that the place will com- 
pose better if the garden is on a lower level 
than the house. The garden itself will gain 
by being viewed from above. If the lay 
of the land admits of it, a few steps may 
lead down from a terrace court, or per- 
gola; this will relieve the stiffness and lack 
of perspective of a level surface. 

The house should not be so profusely 
bedded in vines and flowers as with a pic- 
turesque garden. There should be a sense 
of restraint; everything must be within 
Z7 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

bounds, compact, and of a certain regular- 
ity. A stone or brick house covered with 
close-growing ivy will blend harmoniously 
with the formality of the garden. At the 
angles and by the steps, plant dwarf ever- 
greens, the compact Japanese cedar, cy- 
press and yew, box (pyramidal), and, if no 
further north than New Jersey, the Japan- 
ese euonymus; and at the entrance, on 
either side, standard box trees or conical 
box. The glossy-leaved evergreens will do 
well on the shady sides of the house, as 
the winter sun may injure the foliage. On 
the warm south side, one may plant, when 
in extravagant mood, a few trained fruit 
trees to grow on the wall in fan-shape or 
pyramidal form; apricots, peaches, and nec- 
tarines are the most luscious, and one may 
even have his fig-trees climbing at his 
threshold and clinging to his wall. 

A brick terrace with low balustrade and 
steps, tubs with standard box or bay trees, 
or vases with conical box or flowers, will 
make a good approach to the garden below. 

For a smaller and simpler place the ap- 
proach may be by a brick walk under a 
" pergola " covered with grape vines and 
wistaria. Or an enclosed court may sep- 
38 



FEBRUARY 

arate the house from the garden, and a few 
steps lead from the court to the lower level 
of the garden. 

The central point in a formal garden, 
from which the paths radiate, and around 
which the beds cluster, serves to give ac- 
cent and height, and to emphasise and make 
significant the general form scheme. It 
may be a fountain or statue for a large 
place; more appropriate to an unostenta- 
tious garden is the popular sundial, or a 
large vase of beautiful antique shape in 
stone or marble, standing on a broad pedes- 
tal, and filled with flowers and hanging 
vines. In a large vase there may even be 
dwarf evergreens which will look sightly 
throughout the year. The best arborvitse 
for this purpose are the Siberian (pyram- 
idal), and the globosa (globular) ; a Japan- 
ese yew, or taxus cuspidata, in the centre 
for height; Japanese retinospora plumosa 
for its feathery foliage; and for trailing, 
glossy-leaved evergreens the mitchella 
repans (partridge berry), and, for the Mid- 
dle and Southern States, the leucothoe 
catesbasi. 

Stone seats are often placed around this 
central circle, against the flower beds; but 

39 



SnCCESS IN GARDENING 

they are more effective, and less stiff, stand- 
ing at the lower end of the garden against 
a bank of foliage, or a rose arbour. 

We sometimes see turf paths in a formal 
garden, and our eyes rejoice. But if the 
paths must be of gravel, the fine, warm, red- 
dish-brown crushed stone is more harmoni- 
ous and softer in tone than the staring white 
gravel, which becomes a glaring line in the 
hot July sun. But the choice of gravel 
must of course depend on the colour of the 
house. 

The lower end of the formal garden, and 
one or both sides should be enclosed by a 
thick and varied plantation of shrubs and 
trees, evergreen and deciduous. This back- 
ground should be more green than flower- 
ing. For the evergreens, Oriental and 
Englemann's spruce, American juniper, 
Japanese yew (taxus cuspidata), retin- 
ospora plumosa and obtusa nana; and those 
with glossy foliage, all of which are lower 
in growth, mahonia aqui folium and Japon- 
ica, osmanthus aqui folium (holly-leaved 
olive), ilex crenata (Japanese holly), al- 
though none of these broad leaved ever- 
greens are surely hardy in the North and 
need protection. Among deciduous trees 
40 



FEBRUARY 

and shrubs, the Japanese maples, white 
dogwood, magnoHa conspicua, barberries, 
exochorda, Kegel's privet, rodotypos kerri- 
oides, viburnum tomentosum and plica- 
tum. 

Against this mass of shrubbery, v^hich 
may be high or low according to the land 
and outlook, a bank of Oriental poppies will 
give a magnificent splash of colour. A 
grouping of Mollis and Ghent azaleas also 
adds effectiveness to the background; and 
lower down a plantation of Japanese iris 
would continue the rich framework. 

If the shrubbery can be on only one side, 
the other side should be shut in with a high 
hedge of hemlock or privet. 

The formal beds will be edged with box 
or with ilex crenata; standard rose-trees, 
planted at intervals, are valuable for break- 
ing the long, straight lines; standard box 
and bay trees, conical cedars, and pointed 
Japanese cypresses will be needed to point 
off the corners and relieve the one-dimen- 
sion look of flat land. 

In the matter of planting, one's aim 

should be a massing, not a scattering of 

flowers and colours. Do not let the effect 

be spotty. Do not fall into the mistake of 

41 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

many professional gardeners who seem not 
to understand the value of colour, and its 
possibilities of clash or concord. Instead 
of massing their forces like a skilful gen- 
eral, they separate and disperse them into 
ineffective stragglers. There may be 
groups, at intervals, of three peonies of the 
rarer sorts, but groups of three irises or 
columbines will look futile. Plant the 
flowers in masses, and give character, and 
the emphasis of colour to the garden. 

Almost all of the best perennials, bulbs, 
biennials, and some annuals, are eligible 
for the beds of a formal garden, excepting 
the riotous ones like cosmos, or ordinary 
flowers like golden glow; hollyhocks, which 
are the hall-mark of an old-fashioned 
plot would be out of place in a formal gar- 
den. Besides peonies and the German, 
English and Japanese irises, all kinds of 
columbines look well, delphiniums, lilies, 
monkshood, Canterbury bells, foxgloves, 
larkspurs, pinks, yucca, filamentosta, snap- 
dragons, tritomas, phloxes if one must 
have them, asters, cornflowers, poppies, 
the California and shirley, stocks, dahlias 
of the cactus and single varieties, and other 

flowers. 

42 



FEBRUARY 

It is not necessary to mass one colour or 
one flower together. White lilies and blue 
delphiniums sprinkled together are a well- 
known and charming combination; almost 
all the columbine shades blend, and many 
of the off-coloured Darwin tulips, which 
must surely have a place. A row of 
gesneriana tulips or of daffodils. Em- 
peror and Empress, would be effective next 
to the box edging. Eremurus elwesianus 
and albus is a splendidly effective flower 
growing in spikes six feet high, and would 
be striking for pointing off the beds, or in 
a mass against the green background. 

At the lower end of the garden stone or 
marble seats m.ay stand against a trellis or 
wall covered with different varieties of the 
wichuraiana climbing roses. Perhaps we 
will have a rose arbour, or, if the place is 
not limited, an archway of climbing roses 
leading into a small rose garden, beyond the 
shrubbery. 

This hidden rose garden will be entirely 
concealed and surrounded by high rose 
walls, unless there is on one side a view 
onto a stretch of lawn or into the open 
country. Leave it open on the side of the 
view, but shut in the rest. Tall, red cedar 
43 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

poles, set well below frost, and rising ten 
or fifteen feet high, with wires connecting 
them, will form the background over which 
roses of every variety will climb, Dawson, 
Lady Gay, pink and white Dorothy Per- 
kins, Hiawatha, Evergreen Gem, any and 
all of the wichuraiana hybrids. 

In the centre of this rose garden will 
stand a small sundial or a vase of antique 
shape, and the beds will be bordered with 
box edging. It will be a small garden, and 
the paths that intersect in the middle may 
be of turf, close-cropped. There should be 
standard rose-trees to mark the corners of 
the beds, and there will be no flowers but 
roses. The beds will be filled with hybrid 
perpetuals and hybrid teas: Anne de Dies- 
bach, Frau Karl Druschki, Mad. Gabriel 
Luizet, Mrs. John Laing, Paul Neyron, J. B. 
Qark, Ulrich Brunner, among the perpet- 
uals; and of the hybrid teas, Dean Hole, 
Killarney, and White Killarney, La France, 
Belle Siebrecht, Etoile de France, Gruss an 
Teplitz, and many others (these cost from 
thirty-five to sixty cents each, or three to 
five and a half dollars per dozen). A beau- 
tiful new hybrid tea is Jonkheer J. L. 
Mock, seventy-five cents each. The teas 
44 



FEBRUARY 

will need a protection of manure and leaf- 
mould mulching in winter, but they will 
bloom from June until killed by frost in 
the late fall. 

At the back of these beds, against the 
foot of the rose wall, where the lower limbs 
of the climbers will be bare of bloom and 
foliage, have a hedge on one side of Conrad 
F. Meyer, a hybrid rugosa, and on an- 
other side of the yellow bush roses, Aus- 
trian yellow, Harrison's yellow, and Soleil 
d'Or. Keep the Soleil d'Or apart from 
other plants as it is liable to be attacked by 
black spot/ 

As for Italian gardens, a poor version, 
like a poor translation of the poets, is to 
be shunned. Those who have leisure, taste, 
wealth, climate, and a suitable setting, will 
do well to go to Italy, study her models, 
be saturated with her spirit, and would 
that they could bring back her antique 
statues, her fountains, vases, and marble 
balustrades, her blue skies and soft atmos- 
pheres, her languor and her lusciousness, 
her ancient bay and box trees, her citrons 

^ Rose Growers : Geo. H'. Peterson, Fair Lawn, 
New Jersey; EUwanger & Barry, Mt. Hope Nurs- 
eries, Rochester, N. Y. ; S. G. Harris, 63 Hamilton 
Place, Tarrytown, N. Y. 

45 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

and her cypresses, her cactus and prickly 
pears, her palm trees and umbrella pines, 
her soil and her sun that makes May of 
December, her princes and peasants, her 
history and her hills — for it takes all of 
these and much more that cannot be cate- 
goried to make a real Italian garden! 

We can as twentieth century Bonapartes, 
transport Italy's art, but can we, except as 
followers of Procrustes transplant her gar- 
dens? The South with her tropical tem- 
perature and plants perhaps can, without 
producing a wooden image like a modem 
copy of a Raphael Madonna. But our true 
temperamental models are in England; we 
have reproduced her Tudor architecture 
for our houses, her domestic Gothic for our 
college buildings without a sense of incon- 
gruity; we can, with a comfortable con- 
science, reproduce her gardens. An Amer- 
ican Colonial house would not look out of 
setting in England, but, oh, ye gods! pic- 
ture to yourselves how it would look in 
Italy! 

Our prototypes should be English, but our 
imported plants must be from Japan or 
China, for European species (excepting 
46 



FEBRUARY 

Dutch, bulbs) are not all strictly hardy in 
our climate and soil, and varieties that flour- 
ish in England are not certain to do well in 
our middle, eastern, and western states. 



47 



SECOND WEEK 

"The most exquisite delights of sense are pur- 
sued in the contrivance and plantation of gardens; 
which, with fruits, flowers, shades, fountains, and 
the music of birds that frequent such happy places, 
seem to furnish all the pleasures of the several 
senses, and with the greatest, or at least most 
natural perfections. . . . For this reason Epi- 
curus passed his life wholly in his garden: there he 
studied, there he exercised, there he taught his phil- 
osophy." 

— Sir William Temple. 

A midsummer garden, like a midsum- 
mer's dream, cannot keep from being 
riotous — an Arabian night pageant. 
Perennials and annuals, vivid with many 
suns, intense, discordant, will wrangle and 
disagree unless they are kept apart. It will 
require generalship not to allow the riot 
to degenerate into civil war. 

A well-known writer on gardens says 
that it is safe to plant all kinds of annuals 
together, as Nature is harmonious. But 
Nature is essentially natural and grows each 
flower in its natural environment, according 
48 



FEBRUARY 

to its natural bent. She does not graft and 
bud and hybridise; she does not make arti- 
ficial soil, or carry humus from her moist 
woods to mix with the sand of her desert 
plains. She does not bring plants from 
forest and stream, from field and marsh, 
from hill and hollow, from North and 
South, Holland and Japan, and grow 
them together in a space fifty by a hundred 
feet. Nature needs only instinct, but 
woman, when she steps in, must use her 
brains. 

A summer garden should be intimate and 
companionable. Whether it is near the 
house, or at a distance, it has this quality 
of coming close to one, of taking one into 
its confidence. But it is not to be seen at 
a glance of the eye; it has hidden places, 
cool places, and draws one to them ; it has 
secrets and lures one to discover them. A 
summer garden, with its warm, strong, 
pulsating colours, would tire the eye if laid 
out in full view. Annuals when planted in 
open, flat beds appear staring and super- 
ficial. They are so vivacious, volatile, and 
varied that they need a background or a 
screen. 

It is not easy to find ready-made pictur- 
49 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

esqueness on a small country lot; we must 
create it by a scheme of planting. Let the 
garden be on one side of the house and start 
from the vine-covered porch or terrace ; the 
background of the house will be becoming 
to the flowers. 

The beds near the house should be filled 
with cool-tinted flowers, in lavender or 
blue, pink, and soft corn-colour, such as 
primroses (yellow), snapdragons (yellow 
and pink), campanula mariesii and longi- 
styla, and perhaps the persici folia grandi- 
flora (violet and light blue), also cam- 
panula media (single lavender), veronica 
amethystina and incana (amethyst blue), 
lavender itself, aconitum wilsoni (violet 
blue), a few lilium candidum, larkspur 
in shell-pink or salmon-rose, and different 
shades of pinks or dianthus, the Violet 
Queen, the lilac diadematis flora plena. 

Yellow-pinks and blue-pinks should, of 
course, not be mixed ; one must decide which 
to have and choose between the dianthus 
Salmon Queen and the rose-coloured East- 
ern Queen, If the yellowish shade of pinks 
is selected, then one may plant against the 
house shrimp-pink lavatera or annual mal- 
low. 

so 



FEBRUARY 

The front edge of these beds may be bor- 
dered with a thick row of violet or lavender 
pansies, and the charming violas, the 
papilis (butterfly violet), Blue Perfection, 
and lutea splendens (yellow). Or one may 
have a border of the lovely Carpathian 
harebell (campanula carpatica) which 
grows six inches high and is a hardy peren- 
nial, with clear blue blooms during the en- 
tire season. There are also good shades of 
lavender and pink for these colour beds, 
among the foxgloves (digitalis). 

At one side of the garden, against a wall 
or fence (not a red brick wall), have a 
double row of hollyhocks in shades of 
salmon-rose, shrimp-pink, maroon and 
white; the bright rose tints may be pre- 
ferred to the shrimp shades, but they should 
not be mixed. The Allegheny is a beauti- 
ful variety of the double hollyhock, but I 
confess to a preference for the single varie- 
ties, with their superb colourings and good 
forms. 

For a summer garden have turf paths; 
they rest the eye. And plant shrubs, espe- 
cially those with ornamental and perma- 
nent foliage like Tartarian honeysuckle and 
viburnum tomentosum, forming vistas and 
51 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

turnings, something out of view, so that one 
may come suddenly upon a corner glowing 
with yellow bloom. Have in this corner all 
yellow and white flowers banked in green: 
golden-glow at the back, sunflowers, as- 
phodels, white hollyhocks and dahlias, yel- 
low Japanese iris, monkshood (aconitum 
lycoctonum), lilium elegans and candidum. 
California poppies, yellow and white day 
lilies, marigolds, white and yellow snap- 
dragons, white asters and larkspurs, while 
here and there a splendid spike of yucca 
filamentosa gives a strong accent. 

The tritoma or flame-flower mixes well 
with bronze, orange and maroon flowers in 
the shrubbery. 

Have somewhere, perhaps across the 
lower end of the garden, a straight, broad 
turf path, long enough to give perspective, 
with a goal of some kind at the end, a seat, 
arbour, or rustic tea-house. Have hedges 
of shrubs on either side of the path, and 
wide borders of flowers built up against the 
green. 

Here one will have an opportunity for 
effective planting. But restraint must be 
used in the choice of kinds and colours. It 
is a case for selection: several dozen varie- 

52 



FEBRUARY 

ties must not be crowded into one border. 
And the main difficulty will be not to have 
an emphatic clashing of shades among the 
reds, to avoid placing close together the 
scarlets, salmons, and purplish reds in gro- 
tesque array. 

Few arrangements are more striking than 
a double row of gladioli at the back of the 
border, but there are few flowers that har- 
monise with them; try white, orange and 
maroon flowers, certain shades of nastur- 
tiums, and possibly some lilies. Especially 
choose some of the beautiful new shades of 
gladioli, the soft, off-tints, and avoid the 
glaring scarlets and vermilions. 

Far distant from this group, may be 
massed a profusion of Shirley poppies, and 
as they self-sow they are permanent, and 
are some of the loveliest of the summer 
blooms. Many flowers combine in colour 
with the Shirley poppy, such as stocks, 
pinks, cornflowers, Meehan's mallow mar- 
vels. 

It would be easy to separate the opposing 
camps of reds by a section in blue and white : 
anchusa italica, Dropmore variety, delph- 
inium belladonna, formosum, and caelesti- 
num, monkshood (under shade), canter- 
53 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

bury bells, veronica longifolia, platycodon 
mariesi, white phlox and verbenas, hibis- 
cus, snapdragon, the dark blue and pure 
white Japanese iris, yucca filamentosa and 
lilium candidum. 

Have a group of yucca and Japanese iris 
at one end of this section, and one of del- 
phinium and lilium candidum at the other 
end, and between them the other blue and 
white flowers massed together. Or bank the 
tall plants at the back against green, and 
have the lower flowers in front. Among 
the lower blue flowers a few delicate pink 
dianthus may be scattered; and along the 
front edge a broad border of blue and pink 
forget-me-nots. 

The most successful gardens are the result 
of experience. Every year some offending 
colour will be transplanted to another part 
of the garden, borders will be altered, en- 
larged, simplified; some plants will be up- 
rooted, others added. Inharmonious col- 
ours, if not moved, may be modified by 
clumps of white flowers. White is the 
peacemaker of the garden. 

We want particularly to remember, in lay- 
ing out a summer garden, that it is easier 
to produce commonplace results with an- 
54 



FEBRUARY 

nuals than with perennials; that it will re- 
quire more thought to be distinctive. There 
are two ways of showing our individuality: 
either by a well-thought out scheme of plant- 
ing, or by the selection of choice varieties of 
flowers. 

It is a good rule not to allow one's flow- 
ers to go to pods to any extent, for the pur- 
pose of using the seeds. Flowers should 
be picked, and seeds bought, not from a local 
florist, but from reliable seedmen and nur- 
series. Do not buy ordinary varieties of 
flowers. Do not, above everything else, buy 
packets of mixed seeds, unless they are spe- 
cial colour mixtures, such as white and lav- 
ender, or dift'erent shades of rose pink, of 
yellow, or of salmon. But it is better to 
make one's own colour combinations. So- 
called mixtures are cheaper and necessarily 
poorer. 

Choice varieties of all flowers are the 
named varieties, and the great difference in 
quality, especially with seeds, is more than 
worth the slight difference in expense. As 
an example, sweet peas, which are in almost 
every summer garden, may be unusual or 
they may be commonplace; the small, pur- 
plish-pink kinds are worse than indifferent, 
55 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

while the grandiflora carmine, buff, maroon, 
primrose and deep rose have beauty and 
character. 

We do not want to keep in ruts. Of 
what advantage is it for horticulturists to 
produce thousands of new and beautiful va- 
rieties of flowers, if we still fill our gardens 
with ordinary plants? Let us leave behind 
the favourites of the carpet-bed period — the 
portulacas and pelargoniums, the balsams, 
coleus, cockscomb, candytuft and fuchsias, 
unless we grow the improved varieties in a 
picturesque tangle with a profusion of 
green or in masses of one variety and one 
colour, like the shell pink petunias. The 
geranium has a good claim to be kept in 
our window and veranda boxes, but why 
not select the new strains with large blooms 
and choice shades? Why not try two or 
three new varieties each year, and through 
selection and elimination attain individ- 
uality? 

Cut flowers from our own garden are one 
of the pleasures of the suburban or vacation 
place. We must remember to plant green 
herbs, grasses, and plants with good foliage, 
to mix with cut flowers; and also cultivate 
delicate, feathery blooms like baby's breath 
56 



I^M 




FEBRUARY 

(gypsophila) which give a light effect to the 
other flowers. 

Let no one think that because he has a 
small plot he cannot have a garden. Noth- 
ing is prettier than to see a twenty-five foot 
yard a mass of bloom. He can plant some- 
thing, even on ten feet of land, and have 
flowers, even in a soap box. 



57 



THIRD WEEK 

'*Hang up de fiddle an' de bow 
Take down de shovel an' de hoe." 

— With apologies to ole Joe! 

Foresight and preparedness save time and 
secure better results. In February we must 
look ahead; not only plan, but also prepare 
to take advantage of the first opportunities 
that spring may offer. If we are ready for 
the unexpected — and we know that spring 
is unreliable — we have taken a step toward 
success. 

We cannot garden without tools, we can- 
not dig, water, or weed without implements. 
For those who are starting a new home gar- 
den, I will give a list of tools with approxi- 
mate prices. It is not necessary to begin 
with a full set of everything that is conven- 
ient for garden work. Some things belong 
to the imperative " must," and others to the 
subjunctive " may." It is often possible to 
borrow or hire a hose or a roller. It so hap- 
pened that for several years our roller was 
58 



FEBRUARY 

the only one in our neighbourhood, and it 
was willingly and gladly loaned to many of 
the gardens and gardeners in the vicinity. A 
garden is a very human bond of interest. 
Flowers make fellows of us all. To see our 
wheelbarrow or mower taking familiar pos- 
session of our neighbour's lawn, enlarges our 
sphere of sympathy and our sense of sister- 
hood, and we almost grow to feel that gar- 
dens are not personal property, but should be 
shared with our vicinage. 

All the same, it is really indispensable to 
have a wheelbarrow and a mower, and I 
should be inclined to include them among the 
necessities. 

I will add two lists, the first of necessary 
tools, the second of garden luxuries. The 
prices on the first list may be increased, in 
some cases, to secure better quality, or 
larger sized tools. Those quoted are in most 
cases, for average quality, although some- 
times for the best grade. 

A local hardware store will usually have 
good tools at more reasonable prices than 
the garden-supply firms, with the exception 
of sprayers which are not carried by small 
dealers. 



59 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 



NECESSARY GARDEN TOOLS 



Spade $ -65 

Shovel 65 

Fork 95 

Rake, steel 45 

Rake, wood 45 

Trcfwel, steel 15 

Pruning shears .65 

Common hoe 45 

Watering can, galvanized iron SO 

Hand sprayer 25 

Hand weeding fork 25 

Sod cutter 50 

Wheelbarrow 2.25 

Jute twine, 2 lbs 30 

Lawn mower, good grade 9.00 

Dibber 35 



$17.80 



CONVENIENT GARDEN TOOLS 



Roller, 225 pounds $10.50 

Wheel hoe 2.35 

Sprayer, auto S.50 

Lawn mower, high grade (15 in. Pennsylvania) 12.00 

Tree-pruning shears 8$ 

Garden hose, 80 feet 1^.00 

Gardening gloves 25 

Saw 65 

Flower basket 350 

Rubber plant-sprinkler 50 

Rush basket for small tools 35 

Pruning knife 75 

$49.20 
60 



FEBRUARY 

If one already has the necessary garden 
tools, now is the time to see that they are 
in good condition : the lawn mower may need 
repairing; spades, cutter, saws may need 
to be sharpened. Some implements should 
perhaps be replaced by new ones. 

There should be a clean, dry place for 
keeping tools ; a corner of the cellar will be 
the most convenient spot for those who 
do not have a tool house, or stable. The 
best way to keep tools is to hang them 
on racks fastened to the wall, and the 
small tools on shelves. If possible they 
should be kept in a locked closet, as few 
things disappear with equal ease and inno- 
cence. 

One of the most important ways to be 
prepared, is to order in February all plants, 
shrubs, trees, and bulbs for spring plant- 
ing. Order early and secure good stock, 
and delivery at a specified date, whenever the 
beds will be ready. Planting may begin the 
middle of March in favourable seasons, but 
April is a surer time. If the borders are 
not already prepared, be sure not to plant be- 
fore the second or third week in April, as 
the beds must stand at least three to four 
weeks after they are made. 
6i 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Digging can probably be begun by the 
middle of March, and this will give time 
for the earth to settle and mellow before the 
plants are set out. If there should be a late 
frost, or the ground is not ready for plant- 
ing when the order arrives, the trees or 
plants may be heeled in — a trench dug, and 
the roots laid horizontally in the trench, close 
together, then covered with earth. 

Order from the best and most reliable 
nurseries — they need not necessarily be 
those that quote the highest prices. I have 
known successful results from bargain lots 
bought at department stores, but this is not 
a practice to be advised. One will be surer 
of results by always buying from well-known 
dealers and seedsmen. 

In ordering, it is a help to remember that 
five plants may be bought at the rate per 
ten, six at the dozen rate, twenty-five at the 
price per hundred, and two hundred and 
fifty plants at the thousand rate, provided 
they are of one kind. 

Flower and tree catalogues should be sent 
for now, studied, compared with a view to 
prices, specialties, and varieties. All nur- 
series do not have the same varieties — some 
make specialties of certain flowers, like 
62 



FEBRUARY 

roses, peonies, pansies; others deal almost 
exclusively in bulbs. Some firms are not 
merely growers, but also importers, and buy- 
ers from other nurseries ; they are middle- 
men, but are not always more expensive, and 
have the advantage of knowing the best 
growers of special trees or plants. 

No one person can know all reliable firms 
in the different localities and states, and any 
list must be incomplete and narrow. As a 
help to beginners, I will give a short and nec- 
essarily meagre list of those firms that have 
come under my attention and have proved 
satisfactory through either personal experi- 
ence, or the recommendation of friends. I 
shall note only those I know, but it does not 
follow^ because they have given satisfaction 
to us and our friends, that they are infalli- 
ble ; neither does it follow that there are not 
hundreds of other firms equally good, or 
even better. 

NURSERIES AND SEED DEALERS 

Bobbink & Atkins, Rutherford, N. J. 

Evergreens, shrubs, plants. 
Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 
Evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs; 
specialties. 

63 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Ellwangcr & Barry, Mt. Hope Nurseries, Rochester, 
N. Y. 

Fruits, trees, roses, and herbaceous plants. 
Bloodgood Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y. 

Evergreens, hedge plants, shrubs. Rhododen- 
drons, vines, trained fruit trees. 
Douglas Sons Co., Waukegan, Illinois. 

Evergreens and deciduous trees. 
Andorra Nurseries, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Evergreens. 
Isaac Hicks & Son, Westbury Station, Long Island, 
N. Y. 

Large trees, evergreens, scientific tree-movers. 
Elliott Nursery Co., 336 Fourth Ave., Pittsburg, Pa. 

Growers of specialties, and dealers in evergreens, 
shrubs, herbaceous perennials, roses. 
Arthur Cowes, Meadowvale Farm, Berlin, N. Y. 

Specialist in gladioli. 
George H. Peterson, Fair Lawn, New Jersey. 

Rose and peony specialist. 
S. G. Harris, 63 Hamilton PL, Tarrytown, N. Y. 

Roses, peonies, and evergreens. 
B. Farr, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Specialties in Iris, peonies, and dahlias. 
Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Plants, bulbs, seeds, aquatics, and general sup- 
plies. 

Hoopes Bro. and Thomas Co., West Chester, Pa. 

Rhododendrons, flowering trees, and shrubs. 
F. H. Horsford, Charlotte, Vermont. 

Trees, shrubs, vines, perennial plants, lilies. 
F. & F. Nurseries, Springfield, N. J. 

Trees, shrubs, and hedge plants. 



FEBRUARY 

William Toole &r Sons, Pansy Heights, Baraboo, 
Wisconsin. 
Pansy specialist. 
E. D, Sturtevant, 1150 E. Franklin Av., Hollywood, 
California. 
Specialist in aquatic plants. 
Edward Gillett, Southwick, Mass. 
Hardy ferns and wild flowers. 
Vaughan Seed Co., 14 Barclay St., New York and 
86 Randolph St., Chicago, 111. 
Plants, bulbs, seeds. 
Franklin Brothers, Lake Forest, Illinois. 

Specialty in bulbs. 
W. Atley Burpee & Co., 475 North Fifth St, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 
Reliable seeds. 
Stumpp & Walter Co., 50 Barclay St., New York. 

Seeds and general supplies. 
Fottler, Fiske, Rawson Co., 12 Faneuil Hall Sq., 
Boston, Mass. 
Plants, seeds, bulbs, and supplies. 
R. & J. Farquhar, 7 South Market St., Boston, Mass. 

Seeds, roots, bulbs, and supplies. 
C. G. van Tubergen Jr., Haarlem, Holland. 
American agent: E. J. Krug, 112 Broad St., New 
York. 
Dutch bulbs, and roots. 
B. G. Pratt Co., Mfg. Chemists, 50 Church St., New 
York. 
" Scalecide " for spraying. 
Vreeland Chemical Co., New Brunswick, N. J. 

"Vreeland Mixture" for spraying. 
Consumers' Fertilizing Co., Lawnmakers' Bldg., 42nd 
St. and Broadway, New York. 
" Consumers' Fertilizer " for lawns. 
6S 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 



FOREIGN FIRMS 

John Waterer & Sons, limited, Bagshot, Surrey, 
England. 

Rhododendrons a specialty. 
John Russell, Richmond, Surrey, England. 

Azaleas a specialty. 
Barr & Sons, 12 King St., Covent Garden, London. 

Irises and peonies, specialties. 
Cuthbert's Nurseries, Southgate, Middlesex, Eng- 
land. 

Azaleas a specialty. 



66 



FOURTH WEEK 

" But as he that passeth by 
Where, in all her jollity, 
Florafs riches in a row 
Do in seemly order grow. 
And a thousand flowers stand 
Bending as to kiss his hand . . . 
Long he pauseth doubting whether 
Of those fair ones he should gather. 

" So I wandering but erewhile 
Through the garden of this Isle, 
Saw rich beauties I confess. 
And in number numberless. 
Yea, so differing lovely too, 
That I had a world to do, 
Ere I would set up my rest, 
Where to choose and choose the best." 

— George Wither, (1615). 

This is the week for ordering trees and 
plants to be planted in the spring. An 
early order has the advantage of securing 
^ood stock, but the plants should not be 
delivered until the proper time for setting 
them out, so that it is well to always state 
the exact date when the stock is to be deliv- 
ered. 

67 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Some of the reliable varieties of shrubs, 
perennials, bulbs, and vines, are given in the 
following partial list, from which a selection 
may be made. The list is given merely as a 
suggestion, not in the least as final, and it 
would be well to compare it with the cata- 
logues. 

FLOWERING TREES 

Amygdalus (Almond) : 

communis flore roseo pleno; double rose flowers. 

Davidiana alba; single white. 

Davidiana rubra; single pink. 
CoRNUS (Dogwood; to be planted early in May) : 

Florida. 

rubra. 
Magnolia (to be planted in April) : 

conspicua. 

Kobus (Japanese). 

Lennei. 

macrophylla. 

soulangeana. 

stellata (Japanese). 
Persica (Peach) : 

alba plena. 

camelliaeflora plena. 

rosea plena. 
Pyrus (Crab) : 

Bechtel; double pink flowers. 

coronaria odorata; single, fragrant blush. 

floribunda; single white. 

Kaido; single white, and pink. 



68 



FEBRUARYS 



SHRUBS 

Azalea (to be planted in April) : 
AmcEna. 
Calendulacea. 
Ghent ( Pontica) . 
Indica alba. 
Mollis. 
Rhododendron (to be planted end of March) : 
Catawbiense (native), for planting in masses. 
Hybrid. 

album' elegans, blush-white. 

album grandiflorum ; blue-white. 

atrosanguineum ; blood red. 

Blandyanum; rosy pink. 

Charles Bagley; cherry-red. 

delicatissimum; blush white, shaded pink. 

Flushing; rose-scarlet. 

grandiflorum ; deep rose. 

H. H. H'unnewell; dark crimson. 

H. W. Sargent; brilliant crimson. 

Lady Clermont; deep pink. 

Michael Waterer; bright scarlet. 

Mrs. Milner; deep crimson. 

roseum elegans; rose. 

speciosum; bright pink. 

PERENNIAL PLANTS 

AcoNiTUM (Monkshood) : 

autumnale. 

lycoctonum, early. 

napellus. 

napellus albus. 

Sparks', tall. 

Wilson, tall. 
Anchusa Italica, Dropmare variety, gentian blue. 
69 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Anemone (to be planted in April) : 
Japonica, 

alba; single, snow-white. 

Autumn Queen; deep rose. 

Coupe d'Argent; double, pure white. 

elegantissima ; semi-double, silvery pink. 

Geante Blanche; single, white. 

Lady Ardilaun; white. 

Prince Henry; double, dark rose. 

Queen Charlotte; semi-double, La France-pink. 

rosea elegans; single, silvery-rose. 

Whirlwind; semi-double, pure white. 
N'arcissiflora; cream coloured. 
Pennsylvanica ; white. 
Sylvestris flore pleno; double, white. 
Sylvestris grandiflora (fall-blooming) ; white. 
Campanula : 
carpatica. 
macrostyla. 
muralis, trailing, 
persicifolia. 

persicifolia, Moerheimi. 
rotundiflora. 
Campanula Media (Canterbury Bell), biennial: 
calycanthena, cup and saucer. 

Chrysanthemum : 

Boston. 

Cerise Queen. 

Golden Pheasant. 

Julia Lagravere. 

Model of Perfection. 
Delphinium : 

Belladonna. 

English mixed. 

Formosum. 

Formosum caelestinum. 

70 



FEBRUARY 

Delphinium — Continued. 
Gold medal hybrids, 
grandiflora. 
Hybridum Moerheimi. 
King of Delphiniums. 
Lamartin. 

Digitalis (Foxglove) biennial: 

canariensis. 

gloximinaeflora alba; white. 

grandiflora; pale yellow. 
Helianthus (Sun-Flower): 

Maxim'iliana. 

Meteor. 

Miss Mellish. 

multiflorus maximus. 
Funkia : 

coerulia; blu^. 

lanceolata; lilac. 

subcordata grandiflora; pure white. 

RUDBECKIA : 

"golden glow.'* 
maxima, 
nitida. 
Tritoma (Flame-Flower). 

ROSES 

Hybrid Perpetuals (to be planted in April) 
Anne de Diesbach; carmine-pink. 
Frau Karl Druschi; snow white. 
J. B. Clark; brilliant crimson. 
John Hopper; rose-carmine. 
Magna Charta; bright rose. 
Mad. Gabriel Luizet; silvery pink. 
Margaret Dickson; white. 
Marshall P. Wilder; carmine-crimson. 
Mrs. John Laing; soft pink. 
71 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Hybrid Perpetuals — Continued. 

Paul Neyron; deep rose. 

Prince Camille de Rohan; crimson-maroon. 

Suzanne Marie Rodocanachi; rosy cerise. 

Ulrich Brunner; cherry red. 
Hybrid Teas : 

Belle Siebrecht; deep pink. 

Dean Hole; silvery pink, shaded salmon. 

Etoile de France; crimson, cerise center. 

General McArthur ; scarlet-crimson. 

Gruss an Teplitz; crimson, scarlet center. 

Jonkheer J. L. Mock; carmine and white. 

Kaiserin Augusta Victoria; creamy white. 

Killarney; flesh pink. 

Killarney White. 

La France; silvery rose. 

Lyon-Rose; coral, chrome center. 

Mad. Abel Chatenay; carmine-pink. 

Mad. Caroline Testout; salmon-pink. 

Mrs. A. R. Waddell; apricot and salmon. 
Teas: 

Duchess de Brabant; rose-pink. 

Harry Kirk; sulphur-yellow. 

Marie van Houtte; lemon yellow and white. 

Mrs. B. R. Cant; silvery and deep rose. 

Souvenir de Pierre Notting; apricot to golden yel- 
low. 

Wm. R. Smith; peachy blush. 
Rosa Rugosa and its hybrids: 

Agnes Emily Carman; crimson. 

Blanc double de Coubert. 

Conrad F. Meyer; double, silvery rose. 

Mad. Georges Bruant; semi-double, white. 

Nova Zembla; double, white. 

Rugosa alba; single, white. 

Rugosa rubra; single, crimson. 
Rosa Spinosissima, tall bush rose, single yellovy 
flowers. 

79 



FEBRUARY 

Climbers (to be planted in May) : 
Dawson; double, pink. 
Dorothy Perkins; double, shell pink. 
Evergreen Gem; double, buflF. 
Gardenia ; cream. 
Hiawatha; ruby carmine. 
Jersey Beauty; single, pale yellow. 
Lady Gay; double, cerise-pink. 
Lady Penzance; single trailer, copper. 
Lord Penzance; single trailer, fawn. 
Manda's Triumph; double, white. 
Multiflora; double, white. 
Philadelphia Rambler; double, crimson. 
Reine Marie Henriette; cherry. 
Tausendschon ; double, carmine-pink. 
White Dorothy; double, white. 
Wichuraiana ; single, white. 

TUBERS AND BULBS 

Dahlia (to be planted in June) : 
Cactus, 
Aurora; pink- 
Dorothy; pink. 
Kriemhilda; pink. 
Mrs. Macmillan; pink. 
Queen Alexandra; pink. 
Mont Blanc; white. 
Schwan; white. 
Snowstorm; white. 
Crepuscule; yellow. 
Goliath; yellow, tinted Sainton. 
Mrs. de Lucca; yellow and orange. 
T. G. Baker; yellow. 
Mrs. John Hays Hammond; old gold, shaded 

bronze. 
Princess ; lilac. 
Advance ; scarlet. 

n 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Dahlia, Cactus — Continued. 

J. H. Jackson; dark red. 

Souvenir de G. Douzon; bright red. 
The " Century " single, in different colours. 
Peony-flowering : 

Giant Edelweiss; white. 

Queen Wilhelmina ; white. 

Glory of Baarn; pink. 

La Riante; pink. 
Gladiolus (to be planted in JuneXs 
America ; flesh pink. 
Augusta; white. 
Blanche; white. 
Blue Jay; royal blue. 
Cracker Jack; dark red. 
Dawn; delicate salmon. 
Deuil de Camot; maroon and black. 
Evolution; delicate pink. 
Heliotrope; violet and purple. 
La Candeur; creamy- white, marked pink. 
Octaroon; salmon-pink. 
Peace; pure white. 
Rosella; light rose. 
"Silver Trophy Strains," in lilac, heliotrope, and 

clematis. 
Sulphur King; clear yellow. 
Triom'phe de Caen; white. 
Victory; yellow. 
White cloud; pure white. 
White Lady; white. 

ISMENE CaLATHINA. 

Iris (to be planted in May) : 
Germanica. 
Aurea; yellow. 

Black Knight; violet and purple-black. 
Ciengialti; blue. 
Dalmatica; light lavender. 
Florentina; white. 

74 



FEBRUARY 

Iris, Germanica — Continued. 

Gracchus; brown and yellow. 

Innocenza; pure white. 

Maori King; veined, yellow and chocolate. 

Mile. Almira; lavender-blue. 

Mme. Chereau; white, edged blue. 

Mme. De Baun, pale yellow. 

Queen of May; pale rose. 

Silver King. 
Koempferi (Japanese), double and single. 
Pseudacorus; yellow. 
Pseudacorus albus; white. 
Sibirica, 

Orientalis; dark blue. 

Snow Queen ; snowy white. 
Lily (Japanese grown) : 
Auratum. 
Browni. 
Excelsum. 
Hansoni. 
Henryi. 
Marhan. 

Speciosum album. 
Speciosum Melpomene. 
Speciosum rubrum. 
Tigrinum. 
MoNTBRETiA (to be planted in May). 

VINES 

Annual (to be planted in May) : 
Coboea Scandens; purple flowers. 
Cypress vine; scarlet and white. 
Humulus (Japanese Hop). 
Hyacinth Bean. 
Ipomoea. 
Evening Gloi-y; lilac. 
Grandiflara (Moon Flower) ; white. 
75 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Annual, Ipomcesi— Continued. 

Imperial Japanese; all colours. 
Setosa; rose. 

Maurandia ; blue. 

Morning Glory; blue and pink. 

Thunbergia; trailing. 
Evergreen : 

Ampelopsis Lowii; Japanese Ivy. 

Ampelopsis Veitchi; Boston Ivy. 

English Ivy; plant against a North wall. 

Euonymous Radicans. 
Perennial : 

Actinidia Arguta; white flowers. 

Akebia Quinata; violet-brown. 

Apios Tuberosa; dark purple. 

Aristolochia Sipho (Dutchman's Pipe) ; brown. 

Bignonia grandiflora; orange-red. 

Bignonia radicans; red and orange. 

Celastrus Scandens; yellow, orange fruit. 

Clematis, Henryi; white. 

Clematis Jackmani; purple. 

Clematis Montana rubens; pink. 

Clematis paniculata; white. 

Jasmine nudiflorum; yellow. 

Jasmine officinale; white. 

Kudzu vine; rose-purple. 

Lonicera Halliana (Hall's Honeysuckle)'. 

Polygnonum Baldschuanicum ; white. 

Schizophragma Hydrangeoides, 
(climbing Hydrangea) ; white. 

Wistaria alba; white. 

Wistaria chinensis; lilac. 

AQUATICS 

Nymph^a (Water lily) : 
Aurora; copper yellow. 
Gladstoniana ; white. 

76 



FEBRUARY 

Nymph^a — Continued. 
Glorlosa ; carmine. 
James Brydon; rosy crimson. 
Laydekeri lilacea. 
Laydekeri rosea. 
Laydekeri purpurata. 
Marleacea carnea; pink. 
Marleacea chromatella; yellow. 
Marleacea ignea; deep carmine. 
Marleacea rosea; pink. 
Odorata Caroliniana ; white. 
Odorata sulphurea; yellow. 
Robinsoni; orange-red. 
Tuberosa Richardsoni; white. 
Tuberosa rosea; pink. 
iWmi. Falconer ; bright garnet. 



77 



MARCH 
First Week 

"When the first bright rays of March appeared, 
the Snowdrop, heroic daughter of the hoar-frost, 
sounded the reveille." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck, 

"The snowdrop and the violet, 
Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, 
And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent 
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument." 

— Percy B. Shelley. 

" Some Ignorants are against pruning, suffering 
their trees to run and ramble to such a head of 
confusion, as neither bears well nor fair." 

— John- Reid (1683). 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF MARCH ARE: 

Snowdrops Jasmin 

Scillas Early crocuses 

Chionodoxas Bloodroot 

Anemone blanda Grape hyacinth (Muscari 

Iris reticulata azureum) 

Magnolia stellata 

March is the month for repairing the de- 
structive work of winter, and preparing for 
79 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

the productive work of spring. It is the 
time to cut, dig, enrich — to lay up capital 
for future dividends. As April is planting 
month, March is pruning month. 

Prune all your trees before the sap starts 
up. Magnolias, if pruned at all, should be 
pruned from the bottom. Apple trees 
should be kept free of water shoots that 
spring up like a straight fringe on the head 
of the tree and on some of the large 
branches. These water shoots draw the 
goodness from the tree and lessen the blooms 
and fruit. Dead branches and twigs on all 
trees should be carefully cut out; weak and 
interfering branches and suckers should also 
be removed, and any branches that are super- 
fluous to the shape or fruit-bearing qualities 
of the tree. They should be cut close to 
the limb or trunk, and the cut be parallel to 
it, and smooth. If it has been necessary to 
remove a branch larger than two inches in 
diameter, the wound or cut surface should 
be covered with a coat of oil paint the colour 
of the bark or as near to it as possible. I 
have seen trees dotted with spots of red and 
bright green paint that destroy the beauty of 
a strong trunk. 

Now, too, is the time to prune all the 
80 



MARCH 

hardy varieties of roses, before the sap runs 
up freely, but one must be sure that all dan- 
ger of a sharp return to freezing weather is 
past. Cut out all dead and weak shoots, 
and canes that cross, and in pruning always 
leave the last eye on the cane pointing out- 
ward, so as to prevent as much as possible 
the crossing and interfering of the shoots. 
Weak plants that have suffered much from 
the winter, should be pruned almost to the 
ground, or down to strong wood. Roses 
that have been recently planted, perhaps the 
previous fall, need severe pruning, but vigor- 
ous, well-established plants require less dras- 
tic treatment. If size and quality in the 
blooms are wanted, cut down all shoots to 
the fourth eye above the ground ; if numbers, 
leave five or six eyes. This rule applies to 
hybrid perpetuals. 

Rugosa roses and climbers should be 
pruned as little as possible, merely remov- 
ing dead and weak wood, and cutting off the 
long shoots of the climbers slightly at the 
ends. Rugosas and climbers bloom best on 
year-old wood, while the bloom of the hy- 
brids is on new wood. 

Do not prune the spring-flowering shrubs 
until after they have finished blooming. 
8i 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

But, late summer and fall-flowering shrubs, 
may be pruned now. Hydrangea panicu- 
lata, if used as a hedge should be cut down 
one third; this will give large heads of 
bloom. If the hydrangea is in bush form, 
cut off the tops; there is not much danger 
that it will grow too dense. Standard hy- 
drangea may be pruned from the bottom, 
and also magnolia soulangeana which 
sprawls near the ground; but do not prune 
magnolia stellata. 

Altheas are also late flowering shrubs and 
should be pruned now. 

Some of the following vines may be 
trimmed early in the spring, but do not re- 
quire as drastic pruning as the shrubs. 
Climbing hydrangea needs heavier pruning 
than the rest; clematis and bignonia kadi- 
cans moderate cutting: honeysuckle light 
trimming. Actinidia arguta should also be 
pruned now. 

If one intends to transplant native shrubs 
from the woods, they should be root-pruned 
on a mild day in March when the frost is 
sufficiently out of the ground for digging. 
It is not usual to root-prune shrubs, but the 
process would add to the success of trans- 
planting them. At best this matter of mov- 
82 



MARCH 

ing shrubs from the wild is of doubtful 
economy and feasibility. Wild shrubs are 
accustomed to wild conditions, to moist 
woods and thickets, bogs, and swampy mead- 
ows. Take them out of their usual environ- 
ment, and they not only do not flourish so 
well, but they do not look so well. They 
have lost their setting. 

Nursery grown shrubs have been raised 
under the same general conditions that will 
surround them when transplanted, and the 
change will not be so great a shock. They 
will not look or feel out of place. 

But it is pleasant to try experiments, and 
there is a fascination about going to the 
woods and discovering the lovely wild azalea 
or the feathery clematis. We have brought 
mountain laurel from the woods of our 
Connecticut farm where it grows in en- 
trancing profusion, to our New Jersey gar- 
den, and its scant pale flowers make no effect 
outside of their haunts. But the change of 
climate may not have suited their New Eng- 
land constitution. 

Take the shrubs of your locality. The 

rhododendron catawbiense, glowing and 

superb in its native mountains of the South, 

is not hardy in the latitude of New York. 

83 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The maximum from the Pennsylvania 
mountains is more reliably hardy in a north- 
ern climate. 

In New Jersey we have the azalea and 
dogwood, steeple-bush spiraea, magnolia 
virginiana, elderberry, and barberry, the 
benjamin bush with its fragrant, small yel- 
low flowers, and several varieties of vibur- 
nums, the maple-leaved (aceri folium) and 
the nannyberry (lentago). 

These shrubs of the wilds will have a bet- 
ter chance of fruitful life by root-pruning. 
If the transplanting is to be done during the 
last week of April, now, early in March, pre- 
pare them for the change, and let them get 
accustomed to this sudden lopping of their 
roots. Draw a circle four or five feet in 
diameter; dig out the earth around the cir- 
cumference to a depth of about three feet, 
depending on the length of the roots. Cut 
and bend the roots so as to keep them within 
the circle, and cut under part of the way. 
Then fill in the earth again, and let the 
shrub recover from its surprise. Six weeks 
will help it to readjust itself. A large tree 
needs six months. 

Order now the manure for spring use, 
from any farmer, builder, or dealer who 



MARCH 

keeps a large number of horses, and cows. 
Twice-turned manure is sufficiently good for 
the garden, and costs about two dollars and 
a half per ton; a two-horse load contains a 
little over a ton. Manure turned three times 
is even better, and costs somewhat more. 
Cow manure, at three dollars a load, will be 
needed for roses, and for making new rose 
beds. 

Those who have a bam or stable of their 
own may have the manure drawn out and 
piled in some convenient place for later 
use, but only the old manure should be taken. 
If this is done while the ground is still hard, 
the manure may be drawn by waggon, but 
if the thaw has set in and the earth is soft, 
a wheelbarrow must be used for carting. 
The best and most hygienic way to keep ma- 
nure is in a covered pit. If it is piled in a 
heap out of doors as late as April, it should 
not be left longer than ten days without be- 
ing spread. 

A pile of manure is one of the main breed- 
ing places of flies, but ten days are required 
for the eggs to mature. If the manure is 
spread, the air and sunlight quickly dry the 
moisture and the embryo flies are destroyed. 
So that it is safe not to draw out more ma- 
ss 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

nure than will be needed for use before the 
middle of April. And, after that, cart it 
out as it is required for fertilising the bor- 
ders. 

Another point to remember is that when 
manure is piled on a corner of the lawn and 
allowed to stand for two weeks, the grass 
will be entirely killed out, leaving nothing but 
bare earth. Unless one has a special, out- 
of-the-way place reserved for manure, it is 
well to place boards under the heap for the 
protection of the grass, although even this 
precaution will not entirely prevent the 
burning out of the lawn. 

As the fall is the time when the largest 
amount of fertilising and mulching will be 
required, it will not be necessary to draw out 
now, or to order from a dealer, more than a 
small pile for spring use^ and for making 
new flower beds. 



86 



SECOND WEEK 

"To dig in the mellow soil — to dig moderately, 
for all pleasure should be taken sparingly — is a 
great thing." 

— Charles Dudley Warner. 

" As soon as the frost is out of the 
ground," is a convenient phrase that cannot 
be ticketed with a definite date. It may ar- 
rive early in the calendar or late, the first 
or the last week in March, according to the 
season. There can be no hard and fast rule 
about it; I have known as extreme a varia- 
tion as four weeks from one season to an- 
other, in the same locality. Two weeks is 
a normal difference, and it is safe to say 
that no two seasons are alike, or date from 
the same day. 

As soon, then, as the frost is out of the 
ground, and the earth not too soft to dig, 
the flower beds and borders should be made 
for fall planting, or for spring planting if 
one is found unprepared. But it is well to 
make in the fall the beds for spring-plant- 
ing, and in the spring the beds for fall- 
87 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

planting. This gives several months for 
the earth to settle and mellow, and the re- 
sults will be better than if the plants are set 
out in freshly made soil. 

In staking out a bed or border, except for 
a formal garden, do not have straight lines 
or square shapes. Give motion, spring, and 
sweep to the lines — let the eye be carried 
along by curves. The edges may curve in, 
or curve out; the beds may be triangles, or 
half-circles, they may be round, oblong, or 
elliptic, they may have six sides or three, 
but they must not be stiff and hard. The 
regular, straight lines of a formal garden 
are softened by the border of box. 

After determining the size and shape of 
the bed, mark it out with stakes, and if the 
line is curving the stakes must be placed 
about a foot apart. Pass a string around 
the outside of the row of stakes, two inches 
from the ground and with a square spade 
cut a line in the sod following the string. 
Then cut under and lift off the sod in 
square sections the size of the spade, and 
pile them at one side to be used for filling 
in the bed. 

The preparation of the bed will depend 
entirely upon the kind of flowers that are 



MARCH 

to be planted. For the usual run of small 
plants, dig down eighteen inches ; if the soil 
is clayey, mix it with one-fourth sand. 
Pulverise the earth and mix in a good 
quantity of well-rotted manure; add a layer 
of rich garden soil or dark top soil. For 
larger plants, like peonies, dig down two 
feet, and have a rich, deep soil. 

Beds that are intended for rhododen- 
drons, azaleas, evergreens, and other plants 
that require underdrainage, should be dug 
out to the depth of four feet. The lower 
two feet of earth should be removed en- 
tirely and not used. At the bottom of the 
excavation put a layer two feet thick of 
broken stone or bricks ; on top of the stone, 
a layer of ashes and the sods with the 
grass side down, unless they are needed for 
sodding or repairing the lawn. Pulverise 
the earth and mix with it about one-fourth 
its bulk of well-rotted manure, broken up so 
that there will be no lumps in it. Fill the 
trench with this well-prepared soil, and on 
the top put a layer of rich mould or muck 
from the heap; the earth should be raised 
at least four inches above the surrounding 
ground. Probably, before planting, it will 
be necessary to add another layer of soil on 
89 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

top, as the rains will settle and pack down 
the earth. 

Roses do not need underdrainage unless 
the position is low and water collects on the 
ground, but they must have a thoroughly 
prepared, porous soil. One should dig down 
eighteen inches for roses, and use one-third 
or one- fourth of well-rotted cow manure, 
pulverised and mixed with the earth. 

The lawn now claims our attention. If 
we want a soft, green-sward which will not 
run into a brown patch, the dead grass 
should be raked out, a good fertiliser put on, 
grass seed sown, holes filled in and patched, 
and the lawn rolled. When the lawn is not 
well drained, the water frequently stands in 
pools after heavy rains and melting snow, 
and the land turns sour. This condition is 
easily recognised by the eaten, mothy, and 
mottled appearance of the lawn, showing 
spots of sodden brown earth and patches of 
fine swampy grass. A good remedy is to 
sweeten and disinfect it by scattering broad- 
cast some oyster shell lime, or water slacked 
hydrated lime, or any other good garden 
lime. Use half a ton to an acre, at eight 
dollars per ton. 

All wood ashes from the winter fires 
90 



MARCH 

should be kept; they are the best stimulant 
for grass or flowers. One should have 
some boxes placed in an unmolested corner 
of the cellar, and give strict orders that the 
ashes from the fireplaces shall be emptied 
into them and carefully kept. Whether 
our hearths are cleaned once a day, or week, 
or month, or once a winter, the ashes must 
never be thrown on the common coal ash 
heap. The more open fires one has, and the 
more wood one burns, the better and 
brighter will the garden be in spring. But 
if there is only a small quantity of ashes, 
reserve it for the roses. 

One may, of course, buy a barrel of 
Canada hard-wood ashes for two dollars 
and a half,^ but it is better to buy bone meal, 
which comes in hundred pound bags, at two 
dollars the bag. It can be obtained from 
local dealers or from nurseries that carry 
fertilisers. We have had good results from 
using it, and it is more reliable for the ama- 
teur than the ashes of commerce. 

Both ashes and bone meal are sown 
broadcast ; choose a still day, as the powder 
is so fine that it blows in every direction. 

1 Henry A. Dreer, Philadelphia, Pa., and other 
nurseries. 

91 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Allow about five or six hundred pounds to 
an acre; and watch the skies for a threat- 
ened rain which will wash the fertiliser into 
the ground. 

A new fertiliser recommended by a gar- 
den authority is the Consumers' Fertiliser, 
manufactured by the Consumers' Fertilising 
Co. It is said to be good either for work- 
ing into a new lawn, or for top-dressing 
an established lawn in the spring. For the 
yearly dressing, 300 to 400 pounds an acre 
will be sufficient. 

After the fertiliser has been thoroughly 
washed in by the rains, towards the end of 
March or early April, sow a good mixture 
of grass seed broadcast over the entire 
lawn. All reliable seedmen have good grass 
mixtures; we have used Dreer's evergreen 
lawn grass ; Farquhar's and the Stumpp and 
Walter Co.'s mixtures are also dependable. 
Use at least half a bushel to a lawn or plot 
one hundred by fifty feet; a bushel would 
be even better. The price is from four to 
five dollars a bushel. Mix with this two or 
three quarts of fine white clover seed. Un- 
der trees, and in shady nooks, use " Shady 
Place " grass seed, a few quarts at twenty- 
five cents a quart. Or one may make one's 
92 



MARCH 

own mixture of red top, Rhode Island 
bent, white clover, and some of the fes- 
cues, sheep, meadow, and herd. 

Sow the grass seed on a day when there 
is no wind, and when there are signs of a 
threatened shower; go over the plot twice, 
at right angles, so as to cover every spot. 
A good rain will wash it into the ground, 
and prevent the birds from picking it off 
before it has had a chance to germinate. 
The birds have had many a good meal off 
of our freshly sown seeds. The next step 
is to roll the lawn, not on a wet day when 
the little seeds might stick to the roller ; roll 
the plot once a week, after a rain, when the 
heaviest moisture has dried. 

Every year there will be places in an old 
lawn where the grass has died out. Patch 
all such holes and thin spots; cut out the 
dead grass, sprinkle fresh earth on top, fill- 
ing in the hole, and sow grass seed, or use 
sods. Beat down and tamp the place, and 
water it twice or three times a week, es- 
pecially the new sodding. If there are hol- 
low places where the water settles, cut and 
lift the sod, and fill in fresh garden soil un- 
derneath, enough to round up the surface 
and allow for tamping down. 
93 



THIRD WEEK 

"My advice is to take the greatest care and pains 
in preserving your trees from the worst disease 
. . . I can prescribe no other remedy than to 
prune your trees as close as you can, especially the 
tainted wood, and then to wash them' very clean 
with a wet brush, so as not to leave one shell upon 
them that you can discern. Without these cares 
and diligences, you had better root up any trees that 
are infected, renew all the mould in your borders, 
and plant new sound trees." 

— William Temple (1685). 

After the lapse of over two centuries no 
better advice can be given than that of Sir 
William Temple. Our trees suffer from 
the same diseases, and we use the same 
methods to fight them, with improvement 
only in our appliances and remedies. 
Science has not eliminated disease, but has 
discovered how to keep it under control, 
and in revenge nature invents new plagues. 

The San Jose scale still attacks our trees, 
and our advice still is to cut away as far as 
possible all affected parts, and to spray. 
The best time to spray is in the fall, but 
if it was omitted last November, then all 
94 



MARCH 

fruit trees and shrubs that have become in- 
fected must be sprayed in early spring. 
Select a day when the ground is sufficiently 
firm to allow a waggon on the lawn, when 
there is no wind, and the temperature is 
above the freezing point — not a frequent 
combination of conditions. Lilacs, pyrus 
japonica, flowering peach, crab, and al- 
mond, apple-trees, and purple beech, almost 
all shrubs and trees in a garden, except ever- 
greens and privet, are subject to this insid- 
ious pest. But it is a serious menace only 
to ornamental shrubs and fruit-trees. Or- 
dinary shade trees, like maples, are never 
badly infected, excepting very young trees. 

The notorious San Jose scale is an insect 
so small that it is no more, in appearance, 
than a black or grey speck the size of a pin- 
head, and only a practised eye can recognise 
it. But it multiplies with the rapidity of 
bacteria, reproducing itself at the rate of 
about ten million a day. It rapidly covers 
a branch or twig, sucks and lives on its sap, 
until the branch withers and dies, and gradu- 
ually the devastating army of specks 
spreads over the entire tree or shrub unless 
checked in time. 

There is but one reliable remedy, " Scale- 
95 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

cide," and if used as soon as the pest makes 
its appearance, there will be no difficulty in 
keeping the tree in good condition. Trees 
on which the scale has once fastened, should 
be sprayed every year, preferably in Octo- 
ber or November; but any time will do, be- 
tween October and the last of April, if not 
done in freezing weather. 

The surest way is to have the trees 
sprayed by a reliable gardener; almost any 
intelligent man, who has worked for several 
years in a garden, knows how to spray, and 
has the necessary appliances. 

A barrel fitted with a good hand-power 
pump, and a pressure gauge fitted to the air 
cylinder, twenty to forty feet of hose, ac- 
cording to the size of the trees, and an 
eight or ten foot extension rod with the 
finest nozzle — this is the sum of the outfit. 
If the nozzle is put on with a slanting el- 
bow, one can more easily reach around the 
branches. 

Spray first the outside of the tree on all 
sides, up to the topmost branches, working 
from the extreme ends of the branches to 
the centre of the tree. Drench the tree so 
that not a twig escapes the bath. Then if 
the tree is high or close, so that the spray 
96 



MARCH 

does not penetrate, climb into the inside 
and spray from the centre. Scalecide 
comes in barrels and cans; a five-gallon 
can costs $3.75 ; the price of ten gallons 
is $6.75. It is difficult to say how much is 
needed, as the quantity depends entirely on 
the size of the tree. We have used at the 
rate of about one-half gallon to a large ap- 
ple tree; the scalecide is diluted in the pro- 
portion of six or seven gallons of scalecide 
to one hundred gallons of water. 

Shake the can of scalecide well, fill the 
spray tank nearly full of plain water, add six 
or seven gallons of scalecide to every hun- 
dred gallon's of water. Stir thoroughly un- 
til once mixed; after that do not stir it. 
The temperature of the water should be 
about 70° Fahrenheit; not colder than 40°, 
or warmer than 100°. 

Pour scalecide into the water, not water 
into the scalecide, and if it fails to mix prop- 
erly, do not use it, but exchange it for a 
good can. Scalecide is a petroleum oil 
combined with vegetable oils chemically 
treated so as to be soluble in water, and 
when properly mixed it should not show 
any free oil floating on top, but should make 
a white, milky solution. 
97 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

For small trees or shrubs a much simpler 
and smaller outfit will be sufficient. There 
are good tank or barrel sprayers holding 
from three to five gallons, which cost from 
five to twelve dollars. Knapsack sprayers 
are more convenient, and cost from seven 
to twelve dollars. Hand atomisers and con- 
tinuous sprayers come as low as from fifty 
cents to a dollar and a half, but they re- 
quire a much longer time to do the work. 
The Auto-spray is a serviceable machine; it 
can be slung over the shoulder like a knap- 
sack spray, but is less expensive. The 
price, as with all of the sprayers, varies ac- 
cording to the number of adjustments and 
whether the tank is of brass or galvanised. 
The auto is priced from five to seven dollars. 

During the freezing and thawing of 
March days, the driveways and roads will 
have grown soft and full of ruts. They 
must be gone over ,with a fine iron rake, 
first with the teeth and then with the back, 
and should be raised slightly in the middle, 
making a rounding surface, so as to allow 
the rain water to drain off at the sides. 
The edges of the grass along the drive 
should be trimmed off evenly with a cutter. 
It may be found necessary to have one or 



MARCH 

more loads of fine crushed stone (at three 
dollars a load) added to replace what has 
been washed away; this should be packed 
down, to make a hard surface, with a hand 
or horse roller. 

The nursery bed should be spaded over 
and enriched at a time when it is compara- 
tively empty. In the fall, the larger part of 
the perennials were probably transferred to 
the border, and now would be a favourable 
time for the work. But if the transplant- 
ing to permanent beds was left until the 
spring, then the spading of the nursery bed, 
must be deferred until April or May. 



99 



FOURTH WEEK 

"And the spring arose on the garden fair, 

Like the spirit of Love felt everywhere; 

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast 

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest." 

— Percy B. Shelley. 

"II faut cultiver notre jardin." 

— Voltaire. 

The winter mulching may be taken off 
the hardy borders by the end of March or 
early in April, if the season is normal. 
With a large iron fork, lift off the top layer 
of leaves, and then, very carefully so as not 
to disturb the roots or bulbs, work the lower 
layer of manure or mulch into the earth, 
using a short-handled fork if the plants are 
small and close, or a rake if they are far 
apart. A green hand should not be allowed 
to do this without oversight, for it needs 
discretion and a light touch. 

The top layer of leaves that is taken off 
the beds should be added to the loam heap ; 
they rot and disintegrate with the rains, and 

100 



MARCH 

make the richest garden muck, valuable to 
add as a top layer to old beds, or to mix 
with the earth in newly made borders. 
Turn the heap once a year to make the best 
kind of loam; it is the gold mine of the 
garden. 

Some of the first beds to be uncovered are 
the hybrid perpetual rose beds. As soon as 
the mulching has been removed and the 
earth loosened, sprinkle wood ashes over 
the bed; the rains will wash the fertiliser 
into the ground, stimulate the growth, and 
intensify the colour of the blooms. 

As each border is uncovered, and the 
earth lightened, the edges must be evened 
with a cutter so as to smooth all ragged and 
overgrown lines and make clean edges. 

Planting, too, may be begun during the 
last week of March, if the season is ad- 
vanced, so as to lighten the rush of work 
that comes in April. In fact planting may 
be done, in a favourable season, from the 
middle of March until June. Among the 
plants that may be set out early are rho- 
dodendrons and magnolias. 

Rhododendrons do not flourish in beds 
with other plants. They not only require 
different treatment, but they also dwarf and 

lOI 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

disagree with any and all flowers. They 
are the autocrats of the garden, and must be 
kept apart. The best arrangement is to 
mass from six to two dozen in a border, set 
five feet apart. Or plant them singly in 
holes five feet in diameter. As explained 
earlier, the ground should have been care- 
fully prepared beforehand, if not several 
months, at least several weeks before plant- 
ing, to allow the soil to mellow. If the beds 
are not ready, postpone planting until May. 

The beds must be rich and well-drained 
as described under the second week in 
March. They must be dug down four feet, 
filled in at the bottom with two feet of 
broken stone, and with ashes or sods on top. 
If the soil is clayey, lighten it with one- 
fourth sand; there should be two feet of 
rich soil mixed with pulverised and well- 
rotted manure. The top layer should be 
surface soil raised several inches above the 
ground level. 

Well established herbaceous perennials 
may be divided now, if this was omitted last 
September. The early fall is the best 
season; the last of March the second-best. 
Phlox, golden glow, rudbeckia, hardy 
chrysanthemums, and other hardy peren- 

102 



MARCH 

nials, after three seasons of bloom, may be 
taken up, the roots separated, and reset, 
after the beds have been enriched. Del- 
phinium should be divided or transplanted 
in the spring. 

I often recall the saying of a clever 
woman who is both an old-fashioned wife 
and a new woman, a home-maker and a 
suffragist, which is a combination not mu- 
tually exclusive : " You must have," she ex- 
claimed, " either money or fuss ! " This is 
true of almost everything. If we want 
things we must pay for them — either with 
money or with patience and work. The 
easiest, quickest, best, and also the most 
expensive way to have a garden of peren- 
nials is to buy the plants. The cheapest 
way is to raise the plants from seeds; 
these may be sown now, indoors, or they 
may be sown outdoors from April to Aug- 
ust, according to latitude, locality, climate, 
elevation — and opinion. 

Each one must decide for himself or her- 
self which method to adopt; I should 
choose to sow my seeds outdoors because 
I could not give sufficient time to rearing a 
healthy and numerous family of seedlings. 
But watching and working in the window 
103 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

garden has more of profit and pleasure than 
playing bridge or watching for bargain 
days; and there are some who love to fuss 
over and fondle their flower babies. All of 
these happy people, it is averred by the 
adept, can have better plants of both peren- 
nials and annuals, by starting the seed in- 
doors. 

There are some descriptions of indoor 
seed raising that would discourage the be- 
ginner from ever attempting it. I would 
recommend a simpler method, with patience 
under possible failures ; take chances on suc- 
cess with less outlay of worry, but be pre- 
pared to lose some plants. 

Have a table, that is past being injured, 
in front of a sunny window in a room that 
is lived in, and therefore of equable tem- 
perature, the kitchen, perhaps. Have pans, 
or flats which may be soap boxes cut down 
to a depth of three or four inches with holes 
in the bottom. Place broken earthenware 
or stones in the bottom for drainage, an 
inch, or inch and a half deep; over this put 
a thin layer of coarse earth. The inch and 
a half of top soil should be good, enriched 
garden earth with a little sand added. Or 
if one cannot take soil from the garden beds, 
104 



MARCH 

leaf mould and loam from the heap may be 
used and mixed with sand to make it porous. 
The soil should be sifted in, and then 
pressed down, packed firmly, and smoothed 
with a piece of board which has a fitted 
handle. 

Scatter the finest seed broadcast, then 
cover with an eighth of an inch of earth. 
For larger seeds, scratch a shallow trench 
in the earth, and plant them two inches apart 
in the row; and always label the rows or 
pans. After covering with earth, the seeds 
should be watered, either through a piece 
of cotton cloth spread over the pan, or by 
placing the pan in a larger receptacle or ves- 
sel of water. The pans may then be cov- 
ered with a piece of glass to prevent evapo- 
ration. 

As soon as the little plants are above 
ground, and large enough to be handled, 
they should be picked out with a small 
amount of soil attached. A knife is con- 
venient to use, as no other implement is suf- 
ficiently small; then carefully separate the 
soil from the tiny roots, and replant in other 
pans one or two inches apart. Until they 
begin to grow in their new quarters they 
should be shaded with newspaper; and after 
105 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

they have outgrown the pans, they must be 
transferred into pots, before they are trans- 
planted out-of-doors, the perennials in the 
nursery row, the annuals in the border. 

After all this trouble we must remember 
that species only, not varieties can be repro- 
duced from seed. If one wants a plant true 
to name, colour, shade, it must be repro- 
duced by cuttings. Seeds from a certain 
shade of purple pansies will produce pansies 
of every colour; seeds from yellow dahlias 
will produce white, red, and yellow dahlias. 
There is a certain charm in uncertainty and 
the unexpected, but if a particular colour 
and variety of flower is desired, one must 
either reproduce by cuttings, or buy the 
small plants. 

The same method serves for raising both 
perennials and annuals from seeds, but the 
seeds of perennials, and also the hard seeds 
of annuals like cannas, must be soaked for 
twenty- four hours before planting; hot 
water is preferable to cold, and the vessels 
should be placed where they will keep warm. 

Raising seedlings in cold frames is easier 
than by the indoor method. Take a pack- 
ing box three or four inches deep, knock out 
the bottom, push it firmly into the earth, 
io6 



MARCH 

place a layer of clinckers, ashes, or small 
stones at the bottom for drainage, and fill in 
with good soil similar to that for the indoor 
pans. The sowing is done in the same way 
as described for indoors, and the seeds are 
watered through a cloth. Cover the frames 
with glass sashes, and in warm weather 
with narrow slats. The small plants will 
need merely to be thinned out, or trans- 
planted once. 

Always buy the best seeds ; the difference 
in value is double the difference in cost. If 
conditions are not favourable for raising 
seedlings in the house or in a cold frame, it 
will be better to wait and sow the annuals 
out of doors in May, the perennials in June. 

In selecting flowers to raise from seed, 
it is well to choose those that are not of 
many discordant colours. Dahlias, for in- 
stance with their clash of colour, should be 
raised from tubers of named varieties 
planted out-of-doors. 

But flowers of few or harmonious shades, 
like cosmos, delphinium, snapdragons, nico- 
tiana, and others that reproduce true to 
name, it is safe to raise from seed. 



107 



lAPRIL 

First Week 

" The dayes begin to lengthen apace ; the forward 
Gardens give many a fine Sallet; and a nose-gay 
of violets is a present for a Lady ; the Prim-Rose 
is now in his Prime, and the trees begin to bud. 
. . . Now is Nature as it were waking out of 
her sleep." —Breton (1626). 

** Brave old flowers ! You Garden Primroses, 
Cowslips, Hyacinths, Crocuses, Lilies-of-the-Valley, 
Forget-me-nots, Daisies, Narcissuses, Anemones — 
it is through you that the months that come before 
the leaf-time — February, March, April — translate 
into smiles which men can understand the first news 
and the first mysterious kisses of the sun! . . ." 
— Maurice Maeterlinck. 



FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF APRIL ARE: 



Daffodils 
Narcissus 
Crocuses 
Hyacinths 
Iris pumila 
Early tulips 
Pansies 

Grape hyacinths 
Forget-me-nots 
Phlox subulata, 
and stellaria. 



amoena 



Violets 

Anemone patens 
Primroses 
Double daisies 
Magnolia soulangeane 
Magnolia conspicua 
Forsythia 
Pyrus japonica 
Flowering almond 
Flowering plum 
Cornus m'ascula 



109 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

April is one of the fullest months of the 
garden year. Work of every kind crowds 
in to be done. If the season is late, the 
work allotted for March will have been 
pushed along into April. 

Many of the flower beds still have their 
winter protection, bulbs, peonies, and other 
perennial plants. These must be uncov- 
ered, the fine under layer of mulching 
forked in, and the earth lightened. The 
edges of the beds must be evened with the 
cutter, to straighten ragged lines and make 
a clean curve. 

Remove the covering from the half-hardy 
roses, and prune them. If any of the roses 
are budded or grafted be careful not to al- 
low suckers to grow up from the stock be- 
low the graft. They should be cut as far be- 
low the surface as possible, by pressing the 
shears down in the earth. When Manetti 
stock is used it is sometimes difficult even 
for an experienced gardener to detect the 
difference between the stock and the budded 
plant. Amateurs should always have roses 
budded on the briar, which is so different in 
its small, light foliage and the colour of the 
stem, that it can easily be detected. 

Budded roses are larger and more beauti- 

IIO 



APRIL 

ful than roses grown on their own roots, 
and are worth the risk of allowing one or 
two plants to run to the stock through inad- 
vertence. But it would be advisable for the 
beginner to have part of his roses on their 
own roots, and part budded stock; then if 
he finds he can easily handle the budded 
plants, he may increase that line of his 
roses. 

Leave the covering on the rhododendrons 
until May. They need protection from the 
cold of winter, the changes of spring, and 
the heat of mid-summer; only two months 
of free air at the roots are allowed them — 
May and June. But if properly cared for, 
there is no need of losing more than an 
occasional plant after an unusually severe 
winter. 

If one is planning to set out climbing 
roses, now is the time to plant the poles on 
which to train them. Red cedar poles are 
the only durable ones and they can be had 
from local farmers at seventy-five cents 
each, for twenty-five foot poles, nine inches 
in diameter ; shorter poles cost less, and this 
price includes cartage. The poles should 
not be trimmed close, but have a few inches 
of the twigs, and all the bark left on, in or- 
III 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

der to give the roses a foothold on which to 
dimb. 

Dig a hole three feet deep so as to set 
the pole below frost, remove the bark from 
the foot of the pole as far as it is to stand 
below ground, and paint the bare surface 
heavily with tar to prevent decay. These 
poles may be placed in the form of an ar- 
bour or arch, walk or wall; as a trellis or 
pergola; they may be low along the front 
of the house, or serve as a high background 
against the fence ; they may enclose the dry- 
ing ground, or surround the loam heap. 
Wherever they are placed roses, wistaria, 
clematis, trumpet creeper. Hall's honey- 
suckle, akebia, climbing hydrangea, will 
climb and riot over them, reaching twenty 
feet high, or spreading in a mass along 
the surface. Wires may be strung from 
pole to pole at intervals of height, and in 
a few years neither pole nor wire will be 
visible through the mass of foliage and 
bloom. On our rose wall of cedar poles 
the roses grew twenty-five feet in five 
years and were stopped merely by having 
nothing higher on which to climb. 

Among the flowers to be planted the first 
week in April are the lovely anemone jap- 

112 



APRIL 

onica, both the alba and the rosa in two 
shades, light and deep. This is a far more 
beautiful flower than the cosmos, and being 
a perennial, is permanent — the most charm- 
ing of fall-blooming flowers. From the last 
of September until heavy frost it blooms in 
profusion. By some it is considered a deli- 
cate plant and hard to grow, but with us it 
has flourished with rampant luxuriance. 

Plant them in well-prepared soil, in a 
separate bed, or in masses in the border. 
The usual direction is a " half -shady posi- 
tion," but ours have done better on the 
south, in full sun. In planting the rose- 
coloured anemones, do not place them in the 
same line of vision with the scarlet tritoma, 
but keep them on the opposite side of the 
house. White anemones look well with 
any of the scarlet, bronze and yellow fall- 
flowering plants. 

A charming anemone that blooms in the 
spring is the sylvestris or snowdrop 
anemone. It is a hardy, white, waxy, and 
fragrant blossom that holds itself with 
spirit and grace on its firm stem. There are 
two or three varieties, the grandiflora, and 
the flore pleno, which is a double variety 
and either the same or similar to what in 
"3 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

the American catalogues is called Eliza 
Fellman. The sylvestris is not exacting as 
to sun or shade, and cares not whether it 
grows at the north or south — it is a lovely- 
woodsy flower that helps to give a cool ef- 
fect to border or thicket. They cost about 
two dollars and a half to four dollars a 
hundred; the grandiflora are seven dollars 
per hundred. 

The best time to grade is in the fall. 
But if there was no time or opportunity for 
fall grading, it should be done in April, and 
in some localities as early as March, when 
the ground is in good condition, not too soft 
from the quick alternation of thaw and 
frost, or too dry from sun and drought. 
In the South, grading can of course be car- 
ried on at any time through the winter, but 
the South is a winter garden. 

Professional grading is expensive, and is 
usually done by contract or on a percentage 
basis. It is impossible to give an idea of 
the average cost, as no two places are alike, 
in the lay of the land, soil, or cost of labour. 

But if one's lot is more than a hundred 

by two hundred feet, it will be best to have 

it graded by contract, unless the owner has 

more than ordinary intelligence and a large 

114 



APRIL 

supply of time, or chances to be an engineer. 
With courage, knowledge, a good eye, and 
the patience to stand constantly over the 
workmen, he will undoubtedly succeed in 
saving expense and doing a good piece of 
work. 

To guard against water in one's cellar, 
the ground should fall away slightly on all 
sides — a dry drain around the house is 
the best protection, and is indispensable with 
a clay soil. The lawn should also have an 
imperceptible rise in the middle, and slope 
off at the edges. Water must not be al- 
lowed to settle anywhere on the lot, and 
this matter of slope and fall is the essence 
of good grading. 

Another important point is the prepa- 
ration of the ground. A good lawn needs 
good soil. If the subsoil is hard-pan or the 
land is wet and springy it is advisable to 
trench it and lay tile drains. If this is not 
done, plough deeply into the subsoil several 
times so as to turn the earth over and loosen 
it. The ploughing should be at least eight- 
een inches deep. When the top soil is rich 
and black, spade it off before ploughing, 
and use it for the top layer. But if the land 
is poor, one should procure enough rich, top 
115 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

soil to cover the lawn with a layer at least 
eight inches deep. This can usually be ob- 
tained at the rate oi two dollars to two and 
a half dollars per load. 

Manure should be mixed with the earth 
and pulverised, although it is not necessary 
to have as well-rotted manure as for the 
flower borders; manure turned once is suf- 
ficiently old for the lawn. It will require 
forty two-horse loads to an acre. Pass a 
harrow over the surface, then even it with 
shovels, and tamp it thoroughly. After 
tamping, it may be found that another layer 
of dirt is required. 

To prepare the lawn for seeding, rake 
the ground several times going over the 
area in different directions to make it 
smooth and level. Allow six bushels of 
grass seed to an acre, or about a hundred 
pounds. iThere are good mixtures for 
sale at the best seedsmen, at five dollars a 
bushel, but these bushels usually weigh 
only fourteen pounds. It would be more 
satisfactory to make one's own mixtures, 
even though more expensive. 

There is no panacea mixture that will suit 
all lands, and the wisest way is to send a 
sample of soil to a reliable seedsman, or 
ii6 



APRIL 

analyse the soil and send him the chemical 
compounds. Kentucky blue grass which 
grows in the limestone soils of Kentucky 
flourishes only in its natural element. 

A mixture recommended by a specialist, 
and the nearest approach to a panacea, is, 
red top, sheep's fescue, meadow fescue, 
hard fescue, Rhode Island bent, and white 
clover. 

Sheep's fescue is a short, close grass such 
as grows on the English downs. Meadow 
fescue is a taller, sweet grass which thrives 
in wet and clayey ground, and hard fescue 
flourishes in dry land. Rhode Island bent 
has a low, creeping habit, and throws down 
deep roots. Red top is a standard that 
is adaptable, hardy, and lasting, but espe- 
cially loves rich soils. So that in this mix- 
ture there are grasses that thrive in the 
three main varieties of soil: clayey, sandy, 
and moist. Add to these white clover, 
which is the best clover for lawns and does 
not turn brown, and the entire ground seems 
to be covered. As for proportion, leave it 
to the seedsman, and tell him the nature of 
the land. 

The price of grass seed varies from year 
to year, according to the crop, but forty 
^17. 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

dollars would probably cover the expense 
per acre. A lawn, we must remember, is 
more expensive than a garden on its first 
outlay. 

Sow the seed broadcast, going over the 
ground twice at right angles, so as to cover 
every foot of ground. As with all sowing, 
select a still, cloudy day, with the promise 
of a shower. The rain will wash the seed 
into the ground and prevent it from being 
blown away by the wind or eaten by the 
birds. 

If the ground is dry roll it with a heavy 
hand roller, but not if it is moist as the 
seeds would then stick to the roller. Dur- 
ing periods of drought, through the summer 
the lawn should be watered with a hose. 

Grading that was done in the fall will 
have settled during the winter rains and 
snows, and another layer of dirt may be 
needed to bring the surface to the proper 
height. In any case it will require to be 
tamped, evened, raked, and seeded. 



SECOND WEEK 

" The little window looks upon the East, 
And far beneath, the scented garden ground 
Exhales its fragrance; it is wafted up — 
The white magnolia sends a cloud of scent 
Which oft in certain quarters of the wind 
Pours tide-like through the casement . . .'* 
— Dora Stuart-Monteith. 

" Along the lawns the tulip-lamps are lit, 
Amber, and amaranth, and ivory, 
Porphyry, silver and chalcedony — 
Filled with the sunlight and the joy of it. 

The tulip lamps are lit — the Spring's own gold 
Glows burning bright in each illumined 
cup . . ." 

— Rosamund Marriott Watson. 

Plant magnolias in the spring only. 
Every garden more than twenty-five feet 
square should have two or more of these 
beautiful, showy dwarf trees. The mac- 
rophylla should be trimmed to a single stem 
and allowed to grow as a tree ; its really gi ■ 
gantic white flowers and immense leaves 
make an effective point in the garden, or 
near the entrance to the place. 
119 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The stellata, conspicua, soulangeana and 
the Lennei — beautiful varieties of shrub 
magnolias — bloom in succession from 
March to May, with occasional flowers on 
the Lennei through the summer. They cost 
from one dollar and a half to three dollars 
each. Plant them singly, in a well-prepared 
hole, three or four feet in diameter, and dug 
out to a depth of three feet. 

The stellata may be planted at the ends 
of a border, or the corners of a bed to give 
accent, and in early April before the leaves 
are out, the branches will be covered with a 
mass of glittering white stars — one of the 
most beautiful sights of the spring. 

The beautiful hardy azalea may be 
planted early in April, in an underdrained 
bed, prepared with good garden soil and 
loam, but without manure. The only way 
to use manure with azaleas is in the form 
of a winter mulch. The Ghent, Mollis, 
Amoena, are exquisite varieties, and flour- 
ish best under the lee of a hedge or wall. 
They should be massed together, with no 
other shrub or flower; the Ghent, being the 
tallest, planted at the back. The Calen- 
dulacea is a fine native variety. 

Contrary to the opinion of some high in 

120 



APRIL 

authority, azaleas and rhododendrons 
should not be combined, but should be 
planted on opposite sides of the house or 
garden, screened and separated from one 
another. As they usually bloom at the 
same time, and their range of tints are from 
opposing palettes, there results a battle royal 
of colours with great discord and disagree- 
ment. It is a case of incompatibility of 
tone. The strong blue pinks, reds, and 
purples of the rhododendrons clash em- 
phatically with the soft, yellow and salmon 
pinks of the azaleas, and they cry aloud for 
divorce. 

There is but one azalea that will com- 
bine with rhododendrons — the white aza- 
lea indica; and this is the only colour 
among the hot-house indicas that will bloom 
or live out of doors. 

Many plants for fall blooming may be set 
out during the second week in April. The 
flower of many aliases — tritoma, flame- 
flower, torch lily, red-hot poker, should be 
planted now. Its effective scarlet flower, 
blooming in a pointed spike at the end of a 
tall stalk, looks well singly or in groups of 
three, at the ends or comers of beds; or 
plant them in large irregular groups among 

121 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

shrubbery, and at the back of a border 
against green. 

Other perennial plants, beside the tri- 
toma, that may be set out now, are funkia; 
rudbeckia nitida and golden glow; all kinds 
of helianthus (sun flower), the multiflorus, 
maximus, maximiliana, meteor. Also large 
flowering clematis and the shrub clematis 
in its different varieties of davidiana, recta, 
and heracleaefolia. Clumps of lily-of-the- 
valley should be planted in good soil, and 
enriched with manure. 

Monkshood, or aconitum, of the differ- 
ent varieties, will bloom in succession from 
June to October. Plant them in half -shady 
places or near trees; all the varieties are 
good, the napellus and albus, the autum- 
nale, the early lycoctonum. Sparks' and 
Wilsoni which are the tallest and should be 
at the back, and on the front edge the dwarf 
Fischeri. 

Another blue perennial, the anchusa 
dropmore, of striking gentian colour, 
should be in the border. Also the blue and 
the white campanula carpatica and persici- 
folia grandifolia and the deep blue Scotch 
bluebell (rotundi folia), foxgloves (digi- 
talis) are good in all their colours. 

122 



APRIL 

As for lilies, there are a few that may 
be planted in the spring, although, even for 
these, the late fall is a better time. The 
auratum, the most beautiful of the lilies, 
will die out, but it is worth while to plant 
a few every year. The best of the Japa- 
nese auratums are not delivered until the 
middle of January, and must therefore be 
set out in the early spring. But American 
grown bulbs are ready in November, and 
should be planted even as late as December, 
rather than to keep the bulbs until the 
spring. 

Other species for spring planting are 
the speciosum album, rubrum, and Mel- 
pomene, and the tigrinum. Lilies like a 
half-shady position, and therefore it is well 
to plant them against a background of 
shrubs, or among other tall-growing plants 
in the hardy border. 

The soil should be rich, light, and porous, 
but not dry. Lilies need moisture, and if 
they are planted in the open sunlight, with- 
out shade, they should have a mulch of 
leaves, cut grass, or rotten manure. All 
the speciosums are Japanese varieties and 
should be planted at least six inches deep, in 
a large quantity of sand, and on their side. 
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SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The Dutch firm, C. G. van Tubergen, Jr./ 
has a number of other varieties of Japanese 
grown HHes on his catalogue for spring 
planting. Among them are the dwarf col- 
chicum, the golden Hansoni, tenuifolium, 
Marhan, Browni, excelsum, Henryi, and 
others. 

Among other spring bulbs are the charm- 
ing montbretias which bloom in summer. 
They are delicate in shape, and should be 
planted in clumps of two or three dozen. 
Set the bulbs four or five inches apart. 
The colour range is yellow, orange, brown, 
and scarlet. 

For those who like calla lilies there are 
several varieties sold by the Holland firm 
that are not on American catalogues. The 
bulbs should be planted while dormant, and 
should be dug up in the fall and stored for 
the winter. 

There are two hardy biennials that are 
worth the care they call for — Canterbury 
bells and foxgloves. First sown out of 
doors in early April, they must be thinned 
out as the plants grow large, transplanted 
in mid-July, again transplanted in late Sep- 

1 American agent: E. J. Krug, H2 Broad St., New 
York City. 

124 



APRIL 

tember, kept moist when young, watered in 
dry weather, protected in winter, and 
planted finally in a shady spot, and in fine 
soil with an under layer of manure. 

Campanula media (Canterbury bells) 
come in shades of delicate lavender, dark 
blue, rose, carmine, white, and striped. 
They look well mixed with another flower, 
as with " Newport Pink " Sweet William. 

Digitalis (foxglove) should be planted 
among or against shrubbery, or under the 
half-shade of trees. The lilac, purple, 
white, and spotted are the most characteris- 
tic. There are also yellow foxgloves, the 
grandiflora and canariensis, and charming 
pink or rose varieties which should be 
grouped alone, or against a white-flowering 
shrub. The spikes, four feet high, erect 
and compact, with their rose cups turned 
downward, are as effective in their way as 
the yuccas, and would look well combined 
and contrasted with the white filamentosa. 

The foxglove is one of the best invest- 
ments for the garden. It matches the 
peony. Oriental poppy, and iris in its pow- 
ers of reproduction. And it is one of the 
small number of flowers where the self- 
sown plants are even more robust than the 

125 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

man-sown plants. If the pods are left to 
mature they will self -sow, and one needs 
only to move the small plants when they 
grow too close together. 



126 



THIRD WEEK 

". . . In my spirit grew 
Hope of Summer, love of Roses, 
Certainty that Sorrow closes." 

— Philip Bourke Marsion. 

"I wander'd lonely as a cloud 
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 
When all at once I saw a crowd, 
A host of golden daffodils, 
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze, 

" Continuous as the stars that shine 
And twinkle on the milky way, 
They stretch'd in never-ending line 
Along the margin of a bay: 
Ten thousand saw I at a glance 
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance . . .'* 
— William Wordsworth. 

The mass of spring planting will be done 
during the next two weeks. 

Roses may be set out at any time from 
the fifteenth of April to the first of May. 
They should be planted in separate beds, not 
in borders with other flowers. The soil 
must be rich, and the beds should have been 
127 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

prepared during the previous fall, or at least 
in early March so that they will have had 
four or six weeks in which to mellow. Do 
not plant roses in freshly made beds, if this 
can be avoided; it is worth while to begin 
well, as half of the success in rose culture 
is in the preparation of the bed and the 
planting. If the beds are not ready, pre- 
pare them now, and defer planting the 
hybrid perpetuals until next fall, although 
spring is the best time when all other con- 
ditions are favourable. Teas and hybrid 
teas, must in any case be planted in the 
spring. 

Dig to a depth of two feet, remove all 
the old soil; if the position is low or wet, 
fill in the bottom with a layer of broken 
stone for drainage. Use a rich loam, 
mixed with a liberal amount of well-rotted 
cow manure, and thoroughly pulverised. 
Fill the bed full, and rounding up several 
inches, to allow for settling. The beds or 
borders for roses should be narrow, not 
wider than five to six feet if both sides can 
be reached, and only four feet if the front 
side alone is open. 

Set the roses one foot from the edg^ of 
the bed and two feet apart. If the plants 
ia8 



APRIL 

have arrived during a rain or frost, leave 
them unpacked in a dry place. When all is 
ready for planting, choose if possible a 
quiet, cloudy day, as it is important that the 
roots should not be dried by sun or v^rind. 
Take out only a few plants at one time, 
covering them with straw, branches, or 
moss, to protect the roots from the air; or 
keep them in a pail of water with the roots 
immersed. 

Cut any parts that are bruised, and any 
suckers that may have grown up straight 
from the roots; spread the roots out care- 
fully so that they will lie straight and flat, 
and not tangled. If the plants are budded 
place the point where the stock and the 
graft are united two inches below the level 
of the ground. This rule is for good stock, 
but Holland stock is often budded six or 
eight inches above the fork of the root, and 
if set two inches below the point of the 
graft the roots would be too deep. The 
best way is not to buy Holland stock. 

With the hand, sift in fine earth around 
and between the roots, then water them 
thoroughly — not a sprinkle, but a soak. 
Fill in with loam, then a layer of well-rot- 
ted cow manure, and a top layer of soil; 
129 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

or else mix the cow manure and the loam 
thoroughly together and fill in. Tread 
down the earth, and make sure that it is 
sufficiently high; sprinkle some loose earth 
over the foot marks. Then cover with a 
layer of straw or hay, which may be left 
on for a couple of weeks. 

Tea roses and hybrid teas flourish bet- 
ter if they are given a southern exposure, 
and some protection at the back, either the 
house, hedge, or other wind break ; but they 
must not be planted under trees. Hybrid 
perpetuals are wholly hardy, and flourish in 
almost any situation except under trees, pro- 
vided the soil is rich and not too moist. All 
roses need a mulch of dry leaves and cow 
manure in winter, and will be improved with 
a light covering, of cuttings from the lawn 
or straw, in the heat of mid-summer. 

Newly planted roses should be pruned 
back — the teas to within six or eight 
inches of the ground, the hybrid perpet- 
uals not so severely. All the canes should 
not be cut down to the same length. First 
cut out the dead and weak wood; then cut 
the smallest canes of the teas to w^ithin six 
inches of the ground, and the large, strong 
canes to eight inches. With the hybrid 
130 



APRIL 

perpetuals leave four or six eyes or buds, 
depending on whether it is quality or quan- 
tity that is wanted. The fewer the buds 
left, the larger and scarcer will be the 
blooms. 

It is usual to leave the last bud on the 
outside of the shoot, unless the cane is ir- 
regular and crooked; in that case leave the 
bud on the inside to bring the shoot back to 
the perpendicular. Cut about half an inch 
above the eye. 

The rule for pruning is : the weaker the 
plant the more it will need pruning, the 
stronger it is, the less it will have to be cut 
down. 

If pot-plants are used, have preferably 
the dormant ones, while the buds are still 
inactive; and these will not need as rigorous 
pruning. Set pot-plants an inch deeper 
than they stood in the pots. Field plants 
on their own roots should be set as low as 
they grew in the nursery. Grafted stock 
two inches below the surface. 

Evergreens are usually planted in April 
and May, or the last of August and Septem- 
ber. When the trees are received, if the 
roots are not covered with burlap, they 
should be '' heeled in " — laid horizontally, 
131 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

close together, and the roots covered with a 
thick layer of soil; or laid in a trench at 
right angles, heads out, roots in and covered 
with earth, so that the air will not reach 
them. The trees will keep in this way for 
several weeks, in case the weather is not 
favourable for planting, or the ground not 
ready. 

If the evergreens are to be used for a 
hedge, dig a trench three feet deep, and 
wide enough not to cramp the roots, and to 
allow them to be spread out; four to six 
feet wide according to the size of the tree. 
In clayey soil which holds the water, the 
trench must be dug to a depth of four feet, 
the lower two feet of soil carted away, and 
the bottom filled in with two feet of broken 
stone and ashes for drainage. In a trench 
three feet deep, one foot of broken stone 
will be sufficient. 

Evergreens need a rich soil. Have good, 
dark earth crumbled almost to a powder, 
free of stones, and mix with it very thor- 
oughly some well rotted manure. There 
should also be a quantity of rich top soil, 
and if one has a heap of rotted leaves and 
loam, some of it may be mixed with the 
dirt instead of manure. When the roots 
132 



APRIL 

of the trees are protected with burlap, as 
they should always be, do not remove the 
bagging until the moment they are planted. 

Cut off broken roots smoothly, and 
spread out the small roots carefully so that 
they will be fiat, not perpendicular in the 
hole. The tree should be placed at the 
same depth, or a little deeper than it was in 
the nursery. Fill in the earth slowly and 
carefully, and work it in among the fibrous 
roots, and under the butt of the tree. Pack 
the earth down firmly with a rammer as it 
is gradually filled in, pressing it among and 
on top of the roots as closely as possible. 

The trees will not need pruning, except 
to cut out the leader, so that the tree will 
throw out thick branches on the side; but 
the heads should not be cut off more than 
a few inches, if at all. 

Small trees, one to two feet high, may be 
planted one foot apart, but larger trees two 
to four feet high should be set at least two 
feet apart. After they are planted, spread 
a layer three or four inches thick of manure 
or leaf mould over the entire surface of up- 
turned earth; this mulch should be left on 
for a year, and then be forked into the 
ground. A few of the trees will probably 
133 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

die the first year and need to be replaced; 
this is to be expected, especially with large 
trees. 

In planting privet, set the plants deep in 
a trench, and do not entirely fill in the 
trench until the plants have begun to grow. 
The usual fault in planting California 
privet is that the double row is set too close 
together, preventing the light and air from 
reaching the inner side of the plants. 
There should be at least twelve or eighteen 
inches between the rows; often there is not 
more than six inches. A straggling, lanky 
privet hedge is not worth the trouble of 
planting, but a strong, dense privet hedge, 
solid from bottom to top, is one of the best, 
quickest, and cheapest boundaries that can 
be made. Privet should be pruned rigor- 
ously the first two years ; cut to within a few 
inches of the ground. 



134 



FOURTH WEEK 

"Ah! my heart is weary waiting, 

Waiting for the May — 
Waiting for the pleasant rambles, 
Where the fragrant hawthorn brambles, 
With the woodbine alternating, 

Scent the dewy way. 
Ah! my heart is weary waiting, 
Waiting for the May. 

"Ah! my heart is sick with longing, 

Longing for the May — 
Longing to escape from study, 
To the young face fair and ruddy, 
And the thousand charms belonging 

To the summer's day. 
Ah! my heart is sick with longing 

Longing for the May." 
— Irish Ballad — De.nis Florence MacCarthy. 

While " waiting " we may be practically, 
if not poetically, employed in sowing the 
seeds of all hardy annuals out-of-doors, un- 
less we are intending to buy small plants 
later. 

Seeds are cheaper, but many do not 
germinate, and it is futile to plant them by 
the packet; buy them by the half -ounce at 
135 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

least. Plants are surer, and are not ex- 
pensive, averaging a dollar and a half per 
dozen; but if one wishes to have a large 
number of annuals it seems hardly worth 
while to buy plants every year. 

There are two seasons for planting pansy 
seeds. In the North and West they may be 
sown now for bloom from midsummer un- 
til after frost. They should be transplanted 
in early summer, and if protected in winter 
with a layer of brush and then leaves 
or straw, the plants will bloom again 
in early spring until the following mid- 
summer. 

The other period for pansy planting is 
early in September, when the plants will 
winter over and start to bloom early in the 
spring. 

Pansies need a rich soil, thoroughly 
mixed with well-rotted manure, and the 
earth should be kept well stirred. They 
cannot bear great heat or constant sun; 
therefore, a half -shady position and eastern 
exposure are best. In dry weather pansies 
need watering — a good soaking at night 
— and still more they need to have the earth 
thoroughly stirred the next morning. A 
noted pansy grower says : " Cultivatioi^ 
136 



APRIL 

without watering, is better than watering 
without cultivation." 

The soil should be fine and the surface 
of the bed smooth. Draw a light furrow, 
a sixteenth of an inch deep, sow the seeds 
thinly, cover with earth evenly and press 
down with a board, as in sowing in a cold 
frame. Water, and shade the bed until the 
young plants appear above ground ; then re- 
move the shading gradually until they are 
accustomed to the light. Transplant later 
when the plants have put on five or six 
leaves. 

Annual poppies, the California and the 
delicate Shirley, are too frail to transplant, 
and should be sown in the border. Nastur- 
tiums also must be sown where they are to 
grow. Other annuals may be planted in the 
seed bed, and transplanted to the border in 
June. 

Try dimorpotheca ecklonis, lavatera 
trimestris, and the salmon-pink lupinus. 
Have annual larkspur, marigolds of the 
'African variety, schizanthus or butterfly 
flower, stocks, the annual centaura cyanus, 
and the lovely off-toned zinnias. 

In the fall, chrysanthemums will be one 
of the delights of the garden, next to 
137 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

anemones in quality, but as they are antag- 
onistic in colour they should not be next to 
them in position. Chrysanthemums will 
blend with the true autumn colourings, with 
the flame-flower, barberry, and the fall 
foliage. They should be in the ground this 
week, in rich, well-drained soil. 

If one buys a hundred plants for six dol- 
lars, one can multiply them five-fold in a 
few years by cuttings, and by dividing the 
roots. Cerise Queen is one of the few pink 
varieties and is better planted alone. 
Golden Pheasant and Boston mix harmoni- 
ously, Model of Perfection is white and 
would lighten the dark garnet of Julia La- 
gravere. 

In a well-established garden, there will be 
transplanting that needs attention. Some 
of the shrubs are too crowded, perhaps; 
they may be interfering with each other. 
Take two or three out of a group that has 
outgrown its bed, and plant them in a bed 
apart, or separately. A few plants like 
rhododendrons may have died during the 
winter, and should be dug up; others from 
another part of the garden may be moved to 
replace them. There is always work of this 
138 



APRIL 

kind to do in a garden that is more than 
four or five years old. Do it now. 

Then, too, if the colour arrangement was 
not satisfactory last year, we may want to 
change the position of different plants and 
make new combinations. In transplanting, 
make first the hole where the shrub or plant 
is to be placed. Then dig in a circle around 
the small tree or shrub, leaving as large a 
ball of earth as possible on the roots. 
Have wet bagging close at hand, and, as the 
shrub is lifted, place it on the burlap and tie 
it firmly together. Carry the shrub on a 
wheelbarrow to its new location, hold it 
over the hole while someone unties and re- 
moves the bagging, and lower the shrub to 
the same depth at which it grew before. 
Fill in with good loam, and the plant will 
not know that it has been moved. 

Wild shrubs in the woods that were root- 
pruned early in March may be now moved 
to their new quarters. In digging, follow 
the same circle that was cut before, and pre- 
serve the entire ball of earth around the 
roots, or as much of it as it is possible to 
handle. Tie wet burlap around the ball to 
keep the roots moist. 

139 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The planting should be done in the early 
morning or evening. Prune the roots 
carefully before planting, cutting off any 
damaged or broken ends. The tops should 
be cut down one-third or more of their 
height. After planting, and until the roots 
have taken hold in their new position, the 
shrubs should be thoroughly watered. 

As to the spraying of roses, healthy 
plants do not require it, but if the plants are 
attacked by green flies, black spot, fungous, 
or mildew they can be helped and probably 
cured by using the different sprays. Whale 
oil soap may be applied every three weeks 
until early in July, using one pound of soap 
to eight gallons of water. 

Bordeaux mixture may also be used once 
a month against mildew and fungous; or 
sulphide of potassium, a half -ounce to one 
gallon of water applied once a week. Ap- 
ply one or both of these throughout the 
summer, if the foliage shows mildew. 
Spraying with tobacco water or with arsenic 
of lead is also good for roses. 



140 



MAY 

■First Week 

" How the lilacs, the lilacs are glowing and blowing ! 

And white through the delicate verdure of May 
The blossoming boughs of the hawthorn are show- 
ing, 

Like beautiful birds in their bridal array; 

"And the lilacs, the lilacs are blowing and glowing! 
They pluck them by handfuls and pile in a mass 
And the sap of Springtide is rising and flowing 
Through the veins of the greenwood, the blades 
of the grass." 

— Mathilde Blind. 

" Have ye seen the broider'd May 
All her scented bloom display. 
Breezes opening, every hour. 
This, and that, expecting flower. 
While the mingling birds prolong, 
From each bush the vernal song? . . ." 

— A. Philips. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF MAY ARE: 

Columbine (Aquilegia) Lily-of-the-valley 
Iris Germanica Lilies canadense 

Iris sibirica Arabis alpina 

Late tulips Phlox reptans 

141 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 

OF MAY^Continued. 

Adonis vernalis Flowering peach 

Anemone silvestris Tree peonies 

Yellow roses Wistaria 

Rhododendrons Climbing roses 

Azaleas Flowering crab 

Lilacs Flcfwering almond, dwarf 

Dogwood Kerria 
Spiraeas 

Spring bulbs, if not already planted, 
should all be in the ground by this week. 
Bulbous-rooted irises, the English, Spanish, 
and other species, must be planted in the 
fall. But the tuberous-rooted, or rhizoma- 
tous, such as the German and Japanese, are 
planted in the spring. 

One cannot have too many irises. They 
are full of life, variety, and character. 
They are strong and spirited, delicate and 
rich; they are prolific, generous in colour, 
distinguished in form. 

With all the different species of iris one 
could have bloom from March to the middle 
of July. The first to bloom is the low, rich- 
coloured and spice-scented reticulata. 
Next comes the small persica, to be fol- 
lowed by the pumila in its various varieties 
and colours, and the sibirica. Histrio and 
histrioides are early; and the intermediate, 
142 



MAY 

a new strain of the German, bloom sooner 
than their parent stock. 

The German species follows in May, then 
the English, with several minor species be- 
tween. Next the delicate, airy Spanish, 
that look like painted butterflies poised on a 
stem, exquisite in form and finish. And 
they are as delicate in constitution as they 
are in character. Of the thousand bulbs we 
planted, only six are left. With the same 
tendency to die out as the Spanish, are the 
rich and strangely shaded iris oncocyclus. 

Of magnificent colouring, hardy, free, 
and high-priced are the iris regelio-cyclus, 
meant for the connoisseur and the exhibi- 
tion. 

Last in order of blooming, during the 
first two weeks of July, come the Japanese, 
the largest, most sumptuous, most sensuous 
in tone and texture of the whole race of 
irises. 

Out of this long list, the tuberous-rooted 
Germans, and Japanese are the most hardy, 
and are those calling for spring planting. 

Among the German irises. Mile. Almira 

is the most charming, of orchid colouring, 

but is now so rare as to be almost extinct; 

its light, lavender blue falls are not matched 

143 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

in any other variety. Mme. Chereau shares 
the second place with Mme. De Baun, pale 
yellow, and Queen of May, pale rose. 

The variegata and squalens varieties of 
the German, form a separate class and min- 
gle well, with their tawny yellows, bronze 
browns, and coppery reds. Gracchus is a 
characteristic example of these varieties. 

Sibirica, dark blue, a spirited flower on a 
slim, stiff stem, self sows and spreads to 
amazing numbers. It is valuable for cut- 
ting and should be kept in a separate bed on 
account of its overrunning qualities, or 
mixed with sibirica Snow Queen. Pseudo 
acorus, a golden yellow variety of the same 
general characteristics also mixes with the 
blue sibirica. 

Irises may be planted effectively in many 
different ways, except in a thin, single row, 
or in groups of three in a formal garden. 
Stiffness suits tulips, but not irises. Irises 
demand broad handling; they are big and 
lavish, and ask to be treated in the same 
way. They may be planted in a long, broad 
border against trees, vanishing into the dis- 
tant sky, as in the famous garden of the 
monks at Fiesole. Or the border may be 
thicker and more irregular against a hedge. 
144 



MAY 

The most evanescent, shadowy picture ©f 
irises that I remember to have seen, was at 
twilight — a long, dense line against green, 
seen in profile, pale blue and pale yellow, 
like a mysterious pageant, a procession of 
flower ghosts each bearing a banner. And 
I have seen them look like fairies in a patch 
of moonlight. 

They compose well in large masses, or in 
irregular clumps, and they should always be 
alone. The blues and whites together, 
Mme. Chereau, Orientalis, Ciengatti, Inno- 
cence, Silver King, Florentina; the pur- 
ples together, with white; light yellow com- 
bined with light rose, Queen of May and 
Mme. de Baun; the deep yellow, bronze, 
plum, brown, apart in a rich mass. 

The price of iris bulbs varies so widely 
that it is impossible to give even an average 
of the cost; we might say from two dollars 
and a half per hundred to eight and ten dol- 
lars. There are many that are far more 
expensive, but for an average of five dol- 
lars a hundred, one may have a beautiful 
display. 

The Japanese are somewhat more expen- 
sive than the German, and it is well to buy 
them not from a Holland firm, but from an 
145 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

American firm who makes a specialty of 
this species. They will cost from ten to fif- 
teen dollars per hundred. 

Irises will flourish in any good garden 
soil. Some authorities say that the soil 
should be moist, others that it should be dry. 
But the same soil will not suit all, and the 
truth is that they can exist successfully un- 
der almost any conditions. German irises 
prefer a dry situation, the Japanese do 
markedly better in a low, moist position. 

For mass effect plant the bulbs one foot 
apart. Always put a handful of sand in 
the hole and cover the bulb with sand so 
that the manure in the soil will not touch it. 

Planting will go on rapidly in these first 
days of May. 

, A small tree that is indispensable is the 
flowering dogwood, the white and the pink 
' (seventy-five cents to two dollars each, ac- 
cording to size) . They are effective planted 
in a bed, from three to nine together, of the 
white and the pink. Also singly against a 
green hedge, or warm tinted wall (not a 
red brick wall). 

Flowering crabs (pyrus), both the bech- 
tel and the scheideckeri varieties, have ex- 
quisite pink blooms like miniature roses, in 
146 



MAY 

early spring. There are also other varie- 
ties with single crimson flowers, floribunda 
atrosanguinea, and the fragrant blush 
coronaria odorata. 

Even more charming is the flowering 
peach (persica), the double alba plena and 
rosea plena, and the flowering almond 
(amygdalus), of which the davidiana alba 
is the first tree to flower in the spring, and 
the double-flowering communis flore roseo 
pleno is a later variety. Plant them in 
groups of three, several feet apart, or in 
a broken row against a green background 
of shrubbery. 

Any of the magnolias, dogwood, and 
flowering fruit trees may be used for near 
effects, as they repay the closest examina- 
tion, and are perfect in form and colour. 
For distant effect, alone or with white, and 
separated from other colours, the Judas 
tree is striking against greenery. The pe- 
culiar purplish pink of its prolific flowers 
" carries " a long way. It should never be 
planted at short range. 

Now that the season is settled, and all 
danger of frost is passed, the Rhododen- 
drons may be uncovered. Lift off the 
mulching of dry leaves with a broad- 
147 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

tongued fork, pile them on a wheelbar- 
row and dump onto the loam heap for fu- 
ture use. Rake in the pulverised muck at 
the bottom and scratch the earth lightly, so 
as not to disturb or expose the roots which 
lie near the surface. 

Sprinkle bone meal broadcast over the 
bed; the first ra'in will wash it into the 
earth, and invigorate the plants. 

Tree peonies should have liquid manure 
poured around the roots. Take half a pail 
of sheep manure, fill with water, stir well, 
and let it stand over night. This gives 
splendid results in bloom. 

Those who have an established basin, 
tank, or half-barrels for aquatics, may set 
out hardy nymphseas and nelumbiums at 
this time. The nymphseas should be 
planted about three inches deep, and there 
should be two inches of sand over the com- 
post. 

Nelumbiums do not require sand, and the 
tubers should be planted six inches deep, 
laid horizontally with the point up. There 
must be a division of bricks or boards be- 
tween the nelumbiums and the nymphaeas, 
as the nelumbiums are both gross feeders, 
and rampant growers, and require different 
14S 



MAY 

treatment.^ 'After planting, fill in with a 
few inches of water, and gradually increase 
the water as the plants grow. This, of 
course, is only possible in artificial tanks, 
where the water is under control. 

Two things are necessary to keep the wa- 
ter pure and the plants healthy — fish and 
submerged plants. Two or three gold fish 
in a tub are sufficient to keep the water 
sweet and free from green scum. In a 
small tank six gold fish will act as an effec- 
tual antiseptic and a basin thirty by forty 
feet will not need more than a dozen. In 
a large tank a few of the common spotted 
sun-fish will assist in destroying insects and 
snails that breed in the water. 

Feed the goldfish with bread crumbs at a 
stated place, once a week during the sum- 
mer. There will be no trouble with mos- 
quitoes when fish are kept in the water. 

Among the submerged plants that help to 
purify the water are sigittaria natans, 
cabomba viridi folia, and vallisneria spi- 
ralis. 

A very weak solution of sulphate of cop- 

1 A description of the planning and building of a 
lily basin will be given under the fourth week in 
July. 

149 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

per, sprinkled on the water with a syringe, 
is also said to be a destroyer of green scum. 

Unless we are planning a gorgeous and 
barbaric mingling of all shades and tones in 
Eastern fashion, we must choose the colours 
of our water lilies. Shall we have a soft 
pink, light rose, and white water garden; 
or one in yellow, deep red, and white? 
There are many varieties of the lovely 
nelumbiums, but they are difficult to treat 
and grow successfully, and hardy nymphaeas 
will better reward the amateur. 

For half -barrels and tubs one should have 
the nymphsea laydekeri, var. lilacea, pur- 
purata, and rosea ; they are smaller and less 
rampant than other hybrids. Among the 
larger white nymphaeas are tuberosa Rich- 
ardsoni, Gladstoniana, and odorata Caro- 
liniana. In shades of pink, tuberosa rosea, 
marliacea carnea and rosea; in yellow, 
marliacea chromatella and odorata sul- 
phurea, and the striking orange-red Robin- 
soni. The marliacea hybrids bloom later in 
the autumn than the odorata varieties. 

Some of the rarer colourings are Aurora, 
in copper-yellow changing to orange-red; 
Wm. Falconer, bright garnet; Gloriosa, 
150 



MAY 

carmine; marliacea ignea, deep carmine; 
and James Brydon, rosy-crimson. 

The cost of aquatics is not high, when 
we consider how few plants are needed to 
fill a basin. Tubers vary in price according 
to the rarity of the varieties, from fifty cents 
to five dollars each. Tuberosa Richardsoni 
cost five dollars a dozen, and Gloriosas five 
dollars a piece. But as a single water-lily 
will spread from six to twelve feet 
over the surface, few plants will be needed 
for a moderate sized tank. In half-barrels 
set out only one plant in each barrel, and 
two or three plants of the smaller varieties 
in half -hogsheads. Not more than ten lilies 
will be needed for a small basin. 



ISI 



SECOND WEEK 

"A leafy portico which opens over the sea like 
a deep glance that suddenly discloses an infinite 
thought; a trellis awaiting the purple of the 
grapes . . . Above, all around, on the walls, 
in the hedges, among the arbours, along the branches, 
the climbing plants make merry, perform feats of 
gymnastics, play at swinging, at losing and recover- 
ing their balance, at falling, at flying, at looking up 
at space, at reaching beyond the treetops to kiss the 
sky." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

This should be called vine week. Two 
things are indispensable for suburban 
homes, country houses, and vacation cot- 
tages — vines and bulbs. Man is a public 
benefactor when he plants vines. He adds 
to the pleasure of the community and the 
charm of the town. Streets in themselves 
are stiff. It is what borders them that gives 
them their character. Line them with 
vine covered houses, and vine covered 
fences, and the streets will be picturesque, 
cool, alluring. 

I cannot urge too strongly the more fre- 

152 



MAY 

quent use of vines on the porches, porticoes, 
and walls of our houses. I mean our 
every-day, non-significant, un-individual 
houses. Beautiful architecture is more to 
be desired than picturesque foliage, and if 
we chance to possess it, let us leave it for 
all to see and rejoice in. It seems a strange 
anomaly that in America we plant vines 
where we should not, and we do not plant 
them where we should. We sin both by 
commission and omission, yet it is a mat- 
ter that affects the beauty and symmetry of 
our towns. 

The rule should be: beautiful architec- 
ture, few vines; indifferent architecture, 
more vines; bad architecture, many vines. 

Our practice is often the reverse. 

We may chance to have a building that 
is beautiful in line, proportion, and design, 
and we hasten to plant ivy and other vines 
which cover the walls, submerge the archi- 
tecture, and destroy the effect of form 
and detail. It belongs to what a witty 
writer called, '' the ivy style of architec- 
ture." 

On the reverse of the picture we see 
houses of every heterogeneous shape, size, 
and style, without architectural interest, yet 
153 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

capable of picturesque charm if veiled with 
vines, standing stark and undraped. 

A frame house may be, and is, at times, 
broad and simple in line and good in pro- 
portion. Such a house should be merely 
pointed off with vines. 

But the majority of houses — it is safe 
to say — would be more sightly and seemly 
if covered with foliage, and the streets of 
our country towns would have more of 
grace and suppleness. They would be less 
rigid and staring. They would suggest 
homes instead of houses. 

On frame houses there should be wires 
and trellises for the vines to grow on. 
Heavy wires may be fastened to iron sta- 
ples set in the ground below frost, and to 
hooks in the roof of the porch or the main 
roof of the house. If the side of the house 
is to be covered, nail on two or three hori- 
zontal wooden slats or supports, and attach 
wire netting to them. Sometimes a wooden 
trellis is built onto the outer angles of the 
house or in recesses near the front door. 
But vines do not grow as well on these 
slatted supports, unless one also attaches 
two or three wires on which the small ten- 
drils may grip and curl. 
154 



MAY 

Vines are not expensive. Strong, small 
plants average twenty-five cents apiece and 
they last a lifetime. While we are waiting 
for the perennials to grow — it will take 
two years to produce an effect of foliage — 
we may plant some of the five or six kinds 
of satisfactory annual vines for a quick and 
temporary screen. Cobsea scandens with 
purple flowers; buy the small plants at fif- 
teen cents each. Cypress vine (scarlet and 
white flowers), the low growing thun- 
bergia, maurandia giant blue, a half-hardy 
perennial which may be treated as an an- 
nual, morning glory (convolvulus), hya- 
cinth bean, and the different varieties of 
ipomcea, may all be raised from seed; soak 
the seeds in warm water for a few hours 
before planting. 

The varieties of ipomcea include the 
striking Imperial Japanese, the lilac even- 
ing glory (Bona Nox), setosa (Brazilian 
morning glory) and the grandiflora (moon 
flower) ; buy seeds by the ounce at twenty- 
five cents. The Japanese hop is also a 
good annual vine, which it is best to raise 
from small plants. 

Of perennial vines there are many for all 
purposes. 

155 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

For low trellises, summer or tea houses, 
walls, and low porches, forsythia suspensa; 
the white clematis Henryi and the beautiful 
purple clematis Jackmani, which resembles 
a passion flower; the fine-leaved akebia 
quinata with its small berry-like purple blos- 
soms; polygonum baldschuanicum for late 
blooming; and south of New York the jas- 
mines, nudiflorum and officinale. Apios 
tuberosa also is a low climber, and has pur- 
ple flowers; its roots are tuberous and sev- 
eral bulbs should be planted near together 
to produce a mass of foliage and bloom, 
but it should be kept in the wild garden or 
tangle. 

For higher trellises, but not on the house, 
aristolochia sipho (Dutchman's pipe) with 
its striking but bad-scented flowers; actin- 
idia arguta, kudzu vine, and the cheerful 
and companionable celastrus scandens with 
its glossy leaves and brifliant scarlet fruit. 
Grape vines should be planted in the fall, 
and will be mentioned under October. 

For summer cottages bignonia radicans 
and grandiflora is a vigorous and showy 
climber, and clematis paniculata has feath- 
ery charm and is irrepressibly rampant. 

Hairs honeysuckle is useful everywhere, 
156 



MAY 

on porches, fences, screens, or walls; it is 
hardy, evergreen, a quick grower, and its 
sweet scented, piquant blossom has a spir- 
ited character that does not tire, and never 
runs the risk of boring us as the trumpet 
flower and Dutchman's pipe sometimes do. 

On the house, wistaria Chinensis, and 
alba, clematis montana grandiflora, climb- 
ing hydrangea, and the many beautiful 
Wichuraiana and other climbing roses men- 
tioned under the third week in January. 

Of the evergreen vines for stone houses 
and walls, English ivy south of New Jer- 
sey, euonymus radicans south of Philadel- 
phia, Boston ivy everywhere, and the new 
Japanese ivy, ampelopsis lowii. It is un- 
avoidable, also, to mention the ubiquitous 
Virginia creeper, commonplace but indis- 
pensable for some uses. Such is its amiable 
irony that it may transform an ugly build- 
ing that is a distress to the eye, into some- 
thing that is distinctly soothing. 

It is not sufficient to plant vines ; we must 
plant them intelligently. 

First, in the position where they will 

grow to advantage. All clematis vines 

need full sun, except the paniculata which 

will thrive in half -shade. They should also 

157 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

be on a side which is protected from high 
winds. Bignonia (trumpet creeper), and 
actinidia, also require a southern exposure. 
Wistaria grows on the south and east, and, 
if in a protected position, on the west. 
Roses will grow anywhere, but their bloom 
is fuller in the light. Ivy, Virginia creeper, 
and Hall's honeysuckle will grow on the 
north side of the house. 

Second, with reticence as to colour and 
variety. A house should not be covered 
with a multitude of indiscriminate vines, but 
with a few well-chosen kinds. The house 
must be a unit ; on every face it should show 
congruity, harmony, and fitness. If one 
has more than one species of flowering 
climbers, one should select a few colours 
that blend, either pink, white and lavender; 
or scarlet and white ; other combinations are 
light yellow and lavender, and blue and 
white. A green vine on one side of the 
house or porch will help by lowering the key. 

The real office of vines is not to be flaunt- 
ing, but to give an air of home, of peace, 
privacy, and protection, to unite the house 
with the land, to frame it in a beautiful set- 
ting. We do not frame a picture in a 
moulding that is different on its four sides, 
158 



MAY 

neither should we a house. The most 
charming vine-covered house I know has 
only one kind of vine — the wistaria — on 
three sides. They are ten-year-old vines, 
strong, luxuriant, picturesque — a magnifi- 
cent, characteristic setting. In June the 
bloom-heads hang suspended like moon- 
light, like a drift of foam, with an inde- 
scribable effect of grace and freedom. 
They invite one with large-hearted hospital- 
ity, and, when within, seem to enclose one 
in a serene seclusion. This is the ideal of 
a foliage and flower frame. 



159 



THIRD WEEK 

"The peach-trees are now no more than a rosy 
miracle, like the softness of a child's skin. . . . 
The pear and plum and apple and almond-trees 
make dazzling effects in drunken rivalry; and the 
pale hazel-trees, like Venetian chandeliers, resplen- 
dent with a cascade of gems, stand here and there 
to light the feast." 

-— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

"In your mother's apple-orchard, 
Just a year ago, last spring: 
Do you remember, Yvonne! 

The dear trees lavishing 
Rain of their starry blossoms 

To make you a coronet? 
Do you remember, Yvonne? 
As I remember yet." 

— Ernest Dowson. 

There are those who prefer to raise hardy 
perennials from seed, instead of buying the 
small plants, especially if economy is de- 
sired. An ounce of seed costs from fifty 
cents to tv/o dollars and a half. The price 
of strong plants is from twelve to eighteen 
dollars a hundred. A good plan would be 
to buy a few dozen plants of perennials the 
1 60 



MAY 

first year, so as not to be without flowers 
while one is waiting for the seedlings to 
grow. 

A seed bed, a nursery bed, and a garden 
heap are the three most useful things in a 
garden. Have your seed bed shaded at one 
end if possible, as some of the small plants 
will not thrive in the full heat of the sun. 
Spade out the bed to the depth of eighteen 
inches, pulverise the earth until it is very 
light and fine; if the soil is clayey mix it 
with one-fourth sand. Mix the earth with 
well-rotted manure, or with part manure 
and part muck, to make a rich soil. 

Make drills eighteen inches apart to al- 
low of cultivation with the hand or wheel 
hoe. The drills may be of different depths 
according to the seeds to be sown; a few 
large seeds will need to be planted an inch 
deep, but the majority need only half an 
inch of covering, and the smallest seeds 
need only to have a line drawn on the sur- 
face and a handful of earth sifted over 
them. 

Do not buy mixed seeds, and the packets 

are not always satisfactory. It is better to 

get seed by the quarter, half, or whole 

ounce. Soak the seeds of perennials for 

i6i 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

twenty-four hours before planting — warm 
water is best — and be careful to keep the 
different kinds separate and tagged. 
When ready to plant, turn off the water, 
and, as it would not be possible to handle 
the wet seeds if they are small, mix them 
with dry earth. 

After planting, smooth the surface with a 
board, or the back of a spade, and water 
every day at sun-down for about two weeks, 
and in dry weather throughout the summer. 

The date given for planting the seeds of 
perennials ranges from the first week in 
April to the last week in July. Each per- 
son has a different opinion, and follows his 
own bent. Some transplant but once and 
allow the plants to remain over the winter 
in the seed or nursery bed, moving them to 
the border in the following spring. Others 
transplant two or three times and al- 
ways plant them in the border early in Oc- 
tober. 

In the middle states, at sea level, seeds 
may be sown in April and May. In the 
South, in February. In high altitudes and 
in the North, in June and July. An aver- 
age date seems to be about the middle of 
May. This gives the plants time to make 
162 



MAY 

good growth by August, when they will 
need to be transplanted, and early in Oc- 
tober they may be transferred to the hardy 
border. 

If it is not convenient to transplant in 
August, the large seeds may be planted four 
or six inches apart so that they will have 
room to grow. The smiall seeds it is, of 
course, impossible to treat in this way, and 
they would, at least, need thinning out in 
August. 

Now, too, annuals from the seed-bed, that 
were sown out of doors in April, may be 
transplanted. They should be moved in the 
late afternoon, kept moist, and watered after 
being planted in the border. 

Those who have a water garden will want 
to take the winter covering from the tank, 
fill the tank with water and stock it with gold 
fish. Two fish are enough for a barrel or 
very small tank; six for a medium sized 
basin. 

This week is the time for the second spray- 
ing of roses with whale-oil soap, in case 
they are attacked by the green fly or other 
insects. Healthy outdoor roses, free of the 
pest, are better without a spray. Our roses 
have never required any treatment or appli- 
163 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

cations of sprays; our only pest is the im- 
pervious, mail-coated rose bug in June. 

The climbing roses have been growing 
with elan, and will soon be in bloom. 
New shoots of well-established rose-vines 
will need to be tied up. Have a pair of 
heavy gardening gloves, and a large ball of 
soft twine, or bunch of raffia that will not 
cut the stems ; loose twine wears better and 
lasts longer than raffia. The roses must be 
tied up several times during the summer, as 
they are rampant growers; the older the 
plants the oftener they will need to be 
brought within bounds. It is best not to 
train all the shoots perpendicularly; but to 
turn some diagonally or horizontally, and 
let them climb back and forth in curving zig- 
zag fashion. 

A garden, to be well-kept, must be free 
of all old and faded blossoms. This is even 
more important than weeding. If one has 
little time to give to garden-work, and must 
choose between pulling weeds, and cutting 
off withered flowers, the appearance of the 
garden and the good of the plants will de- 
pend more on keeping them free of pods than 
of weeds. 

There will be hundreds, not to say thou- 
164 



MAY 

•ands, of withered daffodil and tulip stalks 
to cut ofif, and these should be nipped close 
to the ground, or so low among the leaves 
that the ends will not show. Dead magnolia 
blooms look unsightly and must be removed. 
Old blooms of the Oriental poppy are es- 
pecially unpleasant and untidy. And the 
faded irises will need attention. 



165 



FOURTH WEEK 

"The details of fertilising are not agreeable. It 
is much pleasanter to fertilise with a pen, as the 
agricultural writers do, than with a (pail). Prac- 
tically, the business is hardly to the taste of a person 
of a poetic turn of mind . . . 

"A garden is an awful responsibility. You never 
know what you may be aiding to grow in it . . 
I doubt if any one has raised more 'pusley' this 
year than I have; and my warfare with it has been 
continual . . . Neither of us has slept much. If 
you combat it, it will grow, to use an expression that 
will be understood by many, like the devil." 

— Charles Dudley Warner. 

This is a week of many small pieces of 
work for the general welfare of the garden. 
Apply liquid manure to the hardy perpetual 
roses. Use the fluids from the barnyard or 
stable diluted freely with water until it is 
the colour of amber. Or dissolve wood 
ashes or bone meal in a pail of water, and 
soak the earth around the plants. The 
liquified fertiliser must be weak, or it will 
injure the roots. 

The lawn should be mowed once a week 
or every ten days at this fast growing sea- 
i66 



MAY 

son, especially as the weeds may keep pace 
with, or outstrip the grass. If dandelions, 
plantains, and other rampant weeds have 
sprung up, dig them out with a knife; there 
is no other method of extermination. If 
this cannot be done with the first crop, then 
keep their heads chopped off and do not let 
them go to seed. 

Boys are better than men for digging up 
weeds; they have less far to stoop, are 
quicker, limberer, and not so easily bored. 
It requires a large capital of optimism to 
war against plantain. A knife is better than 
a trowel, as the main point is to cut out as 
little grass as possible with the roots of the 
weed. Hire two or three boys at fifteen 
cents an hour, and the lawn will soon be free 
of the pest. Stay on the ground and follow 
in their tracks, carrying a pail of pulverised 
top soil and a bag of grass seed; fill in the 
little holes with a handful of the earth, sow 
a dash of grass seed, and the lawn will be 
greatly improved. 

Gravel walks and drives should also be 
overhauled now that there is a lull in the 
planting. Dig up any grass or weeds that 
may have encroached on the path, and even 
the gravel with a fine iron rake, first with the 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

teeth, and then with the back, to make a 
smooth surface. Trim the grass edges clean 
and straight, but be careful not to cut off too 
much of the sod; only what has overgrown 
the edges should be removed, so as not to 
widen the path by the continual trimming of 
the sides. 

If plants have been raised indoors from 
seeds, or in cold frames, transplant them to 
the garden during the last days of May. 
Annuals may be planted in the border, but it 
is well to plant perennials first in the nurs- 
ery row, and transplant them later to their 
permanent quarters. The plants will be 
stronger for this double transplanting. 

Do not cut the rhododendron blooms. 
They are for the garden, not the house. 
Cutting the bloom-heads injures the plant, 
unless one cuts close to the flowers at the 
base of the heads, so close that there will be 
no stem, only a decapitated head. Some- 
times these have a gorgeous beauty if ar- 
ranged in a flat, low bowl; but it is better 
to leave them on the plants. The new shoots 
which will bear next year's bloom, grow out 
at the base of the flower-head, and if this 
new growth is cut there will be no blooms 
next year, and soon no plants. 
i68 



MAY 

It is the same with azaleas. Both of 
these plants should be grown merely for 
garden decoration and composition. 

Watch alertly all budded plants, roses, 
lilacs, tree-peonies, and cut out any shoots 
that may have sprung up from the stock. 
Cut out these shoots as close to the stock 
as possible, pressing the shears down into 
the earth. 

The greater the beauty of flower or tree 
the more vicious seem to be her enemies. 
Among flowers the rose is the chief martyr, 
among trees it is the elm. 

The arch-antagonist of the elm, that 
minute insect known as the elm beetle, a 
pigmy in size but a giant in powers of de- 
struction, is fatal to the beauty of the tree, 
if not to her life. And it is even said, that 
if this insect is allowed to carry on its nefa- 
rious work unmolested for three successive 
years the fate of the tree is sealed. How 
far this statement is founded on authentic 
fact, I do not know. 

There is only one remedy — drastic, con- 
stant, and intelligent spraying. By constant 
I mean twice every year. 

The adult elm beetle is only a quarter of 
an inch long, and before hatching its eggs 
169 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

it feeds heartily on the elm leaf, boring holes 
from the top side until the leaf is riddled 
from end to end. Often there are as many 
as a hundred and twenty holes in a single 
leaf. These insects appear as soon as the 
first elm leaf approaches full size, but the 
exact date naturally varies according to the 
season and locality; it is safe to place the 
average date on the fifteenth of May. 

During the end of May and the first part 
of June, the eggs are laid on the under side 
of the leaf, and the larvae hatch out from 
the fifth to the twentieth of June. These 
larvae or slugs feed on the under side of the 
leaf, scraping off the surface instead of bor- 
ing through the leaf. 

This makes it evident why two sprayings 
are necessary: the first about the middle of 
May, against the beetle, and the second about 
the last week in June against the slug. The 
first spraying must be aimed at the top of 
the leaves; the second must reach the under 
side. 

Few, if any, amateurs would be able to 
manage this high-power spraying, unless 
they should have a large place, a spraying 
outfit, and competent workmen. The ma- 
jority must employ a professional who has 
170 



MAY 

his own machine and is accustomed to the 
work. Should there be no one in a small 
country town who owns such a machine, the 
nearest nursery will send out their men and 
sprayer. 

The usual price is four to five dollars for 
spraying a large, fifty to seventy foot elm, 
and two to three dollars for smaller trees. 

If the first spraying is so successful and 
thorough that no beetles are left to hatch out 
larvae, there may be no need for a second 
spraying, but this seldom happens outside 
the gardens of Arcadia. We, of plain New 
Jersey may render thanks if, with two yearly 
sprayings and the interest on two hundred 
dollars annually for each tree, we succeed 
in saving our elms. They are worth the 
price. Every large tree adds about two hun- 
dred dollars to the material value of a pri- 
vate property, aside from the question of 
beauty, comfort, and enjoyment. 



171 



JUNE 

Tirst Week 

"0 the rose, the first of flowers. 
Darling of the early bowers, 

Ev'n the gods for thee have places; 
Thee too Cytherea's boy 
Weaves about his locks for joy. 
Dancing with the Graces." 

— Anacreon^ 

" I know a little garden-close 
Set thick with lily and red rose, 
Where I would wander if I might. 
From dewy dawn to dewy night, 
And have one with me wandering." 

— William Morris. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONT^ 
OF JUNE ARE: ^ 

Roses 

Bellflowers (Campanula) 

Canterbury bells (Campanula media) 

Gas plant (Dictamnus albus) 

Heuchera sanguinea 

Iris, Anglica 

Iris, Spanish 

Pinks (Dianthus)' 

Peonies 

Oriental poppies 

Delphinium 

173 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF JUNE— Continued. 

Day lilies (Hemerocallis) 

Lilies, tenuifolium 

Achillea ptarmica, " The Pearl " 

St. Bruno's lily {Ligastrum giganteumy 

Anemones (Pennsylvanica) 

Flowering crab 

Syringa 

Clematis 

The garden is glowing with colour. The 
hybrid perpetual roses are in full flower: 
lovely Mrs. John Laing, the brilliant Ulrich 
Brunner, and the charming white Frau Karl 
Druschki would have inspired Homer and 
Horace to fresh outbursts of song. And if 
Sappho and Anacreon could have seen our 
climbing Lady Gay, the wild Penzances, both 
Lord and Lady, spreading over trellises, the 
wichuraianas covering walls with a sheet of 
bloom, the pink Dawson clambering over 
pergolas, and the exquisite Dorothy Perkins 
hanging in festoons from arbours and 
arches, we should have had a volume of son- 
nets on the rose. As for Cleopatra, she 
would have covered her couch a foot deep 
with rose leaves, and the Roman Emperors 
would have been tempted to still greater ex- 
travagances. 

But the poets are unpractical people. 
174 



JUNE 

How do they expect my Lady Gay to keep 
the soft and flawless beauty of her complex- 
ion without some artificial aid in the way of 
whale oil soap or other cosmetics. How 
did Ronsard exterminate the rose-bugs? 

If we walk by a row of roses we shall 
find that a host of outrageous vandals have 
discovered the sweetness that is in the heart 
of the rose, even if " Roses are fast flowers 
of their smells," as Francis Bacon declares, 
" so that you may walk by a whole row of 
them, and find nothing of their sweetness." 

It is our oflice as practical gardeners, to 
preserve the beauty of the rose for the poets 
to acclaim. The less agreeable task falls on 
us of fighting the devourers, who — or 
which — are now in full career, a countless 
army of rose-bugs hidden in ambush. 
Their hard shell makes them impervious to 
spray or poison, immune to every decent 
and distant method of destruction. A stick 
— if possible, a ten-foot pole — and a pail 
of kerosene are the only known successful 
instruments of attack. The only way is 
to knock off the enemy, by the thousands, 
into the kerosene — not pleasant, but ef- 
ficacious. Either that, or allow the roses to 
be eaten at their very heart. 
175 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

June is the time to watch for diverse in- 
jurious insects on trees and shrubs. The 
oyster shell scale attacks lilacs, euonyinous, 
Crataegus or thorn, and other shrubs, apple 
and pear trees, walnut and butternut, and 
even poplars and willows. The shape of the 
insect, as the name indicates, is that of an 
oyster shell, so minute that one would 
scarcely suspect it of the qualities of life. 
But shoots or branches that become covered 
with these insects, wither and die. 

It is possible, by careful watching, to keep 
the infested shoots trimmed out, so that the 
rest of the tree or shrub may remain healthy. 
Any branches that are badly covered should 
be cut down to the uninfected part, and 
burned. But if the scale has spread too gen- 
erally to be handled by trimming, a spray 
must be used, and the best is a whale-oil 
emulsion. 

Melt half a pound of whale-oil soap in one 
gallon of water, on the fire. Then add two 
gallons of kerosene, after removing the 
emulsion from the fire. Mix it thoroughly. 
Use one part of the mixture to ten or fif- 
teen parts of cold water. 

A single application at the time the eggs 
are hatching into larvae will be sufficient. 
176 



JUNE 

This usually happens early in June, but the 
date differs according to the season, and one 
must watch for the first appearance of the 
moving larvae. The first week of their ex- 
istence is the time when they are most vul- 
nerable, and when they should be saturated 
with the oil emulsion. 

Those who intend to move large trees, 
should remember to root-prune them now. 
This is one of the most important details, in 
transplanting old trees from the woods or 
from one place to another, and should not be 
omitted. It will contribute more than any- 
thing else to success. 

Draw a circle around the tree, allowing a 
foot in diameter for every three feet in 
height; a tree thirty feet high will need a 
circle ten feet in diameter. Dig out the 
earth around the outer edge of the circle, for 
a space the width of two spades, and to a 
depth of three or four feet. As you dig be 
careful not to injure the roots ; cut them as 
cleanly as possible, and bend others around 
to bring them within the circle. Cut under 
part of the way, and sever the tap root. 

Replace the earth and allow the tree to 
stand four to six growing months. It will 
send out a quantity of small fibrous roots, 
177 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

that will be of chief value in transplanting 
the tree later, and it will become accustomed 
to the changed conditions. The tree may 
be moved next October, or in the following 
April. 

The moving of large trees is expensive 
and precarious, but to many, who have new 
places without trees of any kind, a fine, old 
tree is worth the twenty to forty dollars that 
the labour of moving will cost. And by 
root-pruning well in advance, one can di- 
minish by half the risk of loss. Every large 
tree is a valuable material, as well as 3es- 
thetic, investment. 

Shrubs may be raised from cuttings, in 
case one is planning to have a long hedge or 
large plantation. It would not be worth 
while to take this trouble for a few individual 
shrubs, when small plants may be bought 
for twenty-five cents each. But two or 
three hundred bushes may be grown from 
cuttings in nursery rows. 

Take cuttings twelve or eighteen inches 
long, the pruning of good, strong shoots may 
be used. Plant them in rows about two 
inches deep ; water them every dry day after 
planting. The soil of the nursery bed, like 
that of the seed bed, should be rich garden 
178 



JUNE 

soil, which has had well-rotted manure 
worked into it. During the winter, the rows 
must be covered with a light leaf and mould 
covering. 

Next spring thin out the rows, or replant 
them about a foot apart ; they will need to be 
transplanted a second time, and be set fur- 
ther apart, after they have outgrown their 
narrow quarters. When they are two or 
three years old they may be transplanted to 
the hedge or shrubbery. Plants trans- 
planted three times will be the strongest. 



179 



SECOND WEEK 

"The pinks along my garden walks 
Have all shot forth their summer stalks, 
Thronging their buds 'mong tulips hot, 
And blue forget-me-nots." 

— Robert Bridges. 

"The Peonies, who have drunk their imprudent 
fill of the sun, burst with enthusiasm and bend 
forward to meet the coming apoplexy." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

In order to have gladioli for late blooming 
plant them in June. They will be more en- 
joyed in September when there are few flow- 
ers, then now when there is a profusion of 
more beautiful blooms. 

Gladioli are effective planted in clumps 
at the back of a border or among shrubbery; 
but they prefer a sunny position, and the 
ideal place is in the open against green 
shrubs. Their colours do not blend har- 
moniously with many other flowers. Many 
plant them in the rose beds among the hy- 
brid perpetuals. The roots of the gladioli 
lie near the surface and do not interfere with 
i8o 



JUNE 

the roses or absorb the goodness of the soil, 
and the flowers come out after the perpetuals 
have finished blooming. I do not care for 
this method, but many do. They need a 
well-drained bed of sandy loam, mixed with 
well-rotted manure, but the roots must not 
come in contact with the manure; if the soil 
is stiff and hard, mix it with one-fourth 
sand. The best way is to put a layer of 
sheep manure on the bed in the fall and 
spade it in the following spring. 

There are new and rare varieties of glad- 
ioli that are as different from the older and 
more ordinary kinds as pastels are from 
chromos. The old-fashioned gladiolus was 
coarse in colouring, with flaming scar- 
lets and gaudy yellows. Some of the new 
introductions are as delicate as orchids, or 
as rich as pansies. But the manner of 
growth will always prevent the gladiolus 
from taking first place among flowers, al- 
though it will hold its place as a fad and a 
specialty. Colours may be improved, but 
the nature cannot be changed. 

The America is one of the finest, flesh- 
pink in shade, and of good growth. 
Blanche, Triomphe de Caen, and White 
Lady are beautiful white varieties and would 
i8i 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

blend in any border. One must admit that 
they have the saliency of an exclamation 
mark, and, if used as accent in a garden, 
would have their significance and value. 

Two rich velvety kinds are Deuil de Car- 
not, maroon shaded black, and Heliotrope, 
violet shaded with purple. Either of these 
among white flowers would be striking, but 
the difficulty is to get white flowers in sum- 
mer and fall. Of delicate colouring are 
Dawn, and La Candeur, which is the latest 
to flower. Blue Jay, a rich royal blue, is 
effective combined with the clear yellow of 
Sulphur King. These rare gladiolus bulbs 
cost from ten to twenty-five cents each, with 
a reduction for quantities. 

I should like to try a grouping against a 
warm fawn-coloured wall, of the lilac, helio- 
trope, and clematis shades, belonging to the 
hybrid " Silver Trophy strains/' planted 
with two varieties of white gladioli. Peace 
and White Cloud.* The shape of the 
flowers in the Silver Trophy Strains and the 
way they grow on the stem, is less stiff and 

1 Arthur Cowee, Meadowvale Farms, Box 82, Ber- 
lin, N. Y., specialist in Gladioli ; Fottler, Fiske, 
Rawson Co., 12 Faneuil Hall Sq., Boston, Mass.; 
Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, 
Pa. 

182 



JUNE 

regular, and the prices are more popular, 
twenty-five bulbs for a dollar and a half. 

Other effective varieties, besides those al- 
ready mentioned are, Cracker Jack (dark 
red), Evolution (delicate pink), and Rosella 
(light rose). 

There are other good gladioli at ten cents 
each, less unusual in colouring, more vivid, 
startling, and splashed. Even among these, 
a few are of moderate tones: Octoroon, 
salmon pink; Jessie, velvety-red; Augusta, 
white; Victory, yellow, and others. Fiery 
scarlets there are in abundance; it is only a 
question of avoiding them. 

Buy not less than a dozen bulbs of a kind 
and plant in clumps of one or two varieties 
together. Bulbs should be bought by the 
hundred ; the ten cent varieties cost only five 
or six dollars per hundred, and twenty-five 
can always be had at the hundred rate. 

Plant the bulbs three or four inches apart ; 
or if two plantings are made for succession 
of bloom, the first lot may be set eight inches 
apart. Then two weeks later plant more of 
the same varieties between the first bulbs. 
Small bulbs should be set two or three 
inches deep; large bulbs four inches below 
the surface. 

183 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Early in October the tops must be cut off, 
the bulbs lifted, and stored on shelves in an 
airy, cool place where the temperature will 
range from 50° to 60°. 

A charming bulbous flower to be treated 
in the same way is the fragrant, white is- 
mene calathina, with its spirited, free, and 
picturesque blossoms. It is also called the 
Peruvian daffodil, but does not resemble 
our Daffodil either in form or manner of 
growth. Being white, it is a valuable addi- 
tion to the summer garden. Plant the bulbs 
now, lift them in October and store for the 
winter. 

Almost all the annuals planted in the 
seedbed will be ready to be transplanted to 
the border. Transplant in the cool part of 
the day. Take them up with a good ball of 
earth, and stand them in a pan of water un- 
till ready to plant. After planting, water 
thoroughly. 

Evergreen hedges should now be pruned. 
June is the time to prune for new growth; 
September the time for clipping to keep the 
hedge within bounds, and of the desired 
shape. 

The plants must be given a chance to make 
strong growth during the summer. If the 
184 



JUNE 

hedge is of hemlock, cut off the side shoots, 
and cut down the leaders, so that it will 
make thick growth. When it has reached 
the desired height and density, prune it only 
enough to keep it within bounds and give it 
healthy new growth. In September it will 
need only a slight clipping to preserve the 
shape. Norway spruce should be trimmed 
to half of the new growth leaving four or 
five eyes which form new shoots at each cut 
end. 



185 



THIRD WEEK 

"One of the minor pleasures of life is that of 
controlling vegetable activity and aggressions with 
the pruning-knife. Vigorous and rapid growth is, 
however, a necessity to the sport. To prune feeble 
plants and shrubs is like acting the part of dry- 
nurse to a sickly orphan ... I desire to be 
surrounded only by healthy, vigorous plants and 
trees, which require constant cutting-in and manage- 
ment." 

— Charles Dudley Warner, 

When the spring-flowering shrubs have 
finished blooming, prune them — not be- 
fore. Shrubs are often pruned too much. 
Many gardeners and the unintelHgent hired 
man make the mistake of pruning them in 
March at the time they prune trees, roses, 
and fall-flowering shrubs, and frequently 
cut them into hard, round shapes as they 
would a box or bay tree. The result is di- 
minished bloom, and a stiff appearance that 
does not agree with their habit of growth. 

Shrubs should be allowed to grow freely 
and naturally, according to their bent. The 
only object in pruning is to cut out dead, 
i86 



JUNE 

weak, and damaged branches, to remove old 
wood which will not bloom again, so as to 
let the sap and strength go to the new wood 
on which the flowers will bloom next year. 
All we want in a shrub is profuse bloom, a 
healthy habit, and picturesque form. 

Late summer and fall-flowering shrubs 
like hydranga paniculata and rosa rugosa 
are cut back in March. Hibiscus or al- 
thaea should be pruned in late winter, never 
in spring. Rhododendrons and azaleas 
are catalogued under shrubs, but they 
should not be pruned, except to cut down 
the dead wood. 

Forsythias, dentzias, spiraeas, hawthorns, 
exochorda, viburnums, weigelas, and all the 
shrubs that bloom in April and May 
must be pruned now. Cut out all dead 
shoots to the ground, cut off broken or dam- 
aged branches cleanly, cut down the old 
limbs as near the ground as possible. This 
will give light and air to the bush, and 
send all the blood to the new wood. If 
some of the new branches are too long, snip 
off a few inches from the ends — not more ; 
but it is safer not to touch them, and if they 
are left to grow naturally the bush will be 
more graceful in shape. 
187 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Much depends on what result one wishes 
to attain. If large and profuse bloom, and 
a healthy plant, the method described above 
should be followed. But if one prefers to 
sacrifice some of the bloom and keep the 
light feathery effect of the shrub both in 
summer and winter, then he should not cut 
out so much of the old wood — only the 
dead wood. I admit that while our shrubs 
may not be professionally pruned and have 
many of the old limbs left, they not only 
have a light, feathery effect in winter, but 
are covered with a mass of bloom in the 
spring. 

An exception to this rule is the pyrus 
japonicus (Japanese quince), which flowers 
on the year-old wood, and therefore needs 
light pruning. Cut out any damaged and 
broken branches, and year-old limbs that 
have finished blooming. 

Lilacs also bloom on the old wood, and, 
while they need pruning, it should be done 
carefully. Cut off all withered heads of 
bloom, and thin out some of the old wood 
where the bush has grown too dense. All 
dead wood must of course be cut out, but 
the rest of the pruning should be moderate. 
Irregular shoots should also be snipped 
i88 



JUNE 

back. We must study the characteristics of 
a shrub; a lilac bush is at its best when it is 
symmetrical, a forsythia bush is most sig- 
nificant when it is free, picturesque, and 
graceful. We want to cut back into shape 
the straggling shoots on a lilac, but we 
want to leave the irregular lines of a For- 
sythia. 

Our lilac bushes, of the rich double violet 
and dark red varieties, had grown tall and 
ungainly, with a fringe of bloom on top, 
out of sight and reach, and with bare, lanky 
shoots below. They had not been properly 
pruned. Last year the tops were cut back, 
and while we shall lose the flowers this sea- 
son, the shape of the bushes will be im- 
proved and the bloom next year will be more 
perfect. 

Among the vines to be pruned now are 
the wistaria (slightly), akebia quinata, 
forsythia suspensa, and jasmine. 

In pruning, use shears with a spring 
handle; they will cut the limb of any shrub 
unless the bush has been long neglected, and 
has developed heavy branches. In that case 
use a one-edged saw. 

This is the time for the second spra)nng 
of the elm trees. Although the first spray- 
189 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

ing probably killed the beetles by the thou- 
sand, it could not kill all. A certain num- 
ber of larvae will have hatched out by now, 
and are feeding on the under side of the 
leaves. They do not bore, they scrape the 
under surface, and after eating to their 
complete content, by the end of June, the 
larvae will begin to crawl down the trunk 
and hide in the crevices of the bark until 
they are transformed into a new crop of 
beetles. 

At first no particular harm seems to be 
done by this under-surface feeding; the ap- 
pearance of the tree is the same, but by 
August the leaves will curl and shrivel, and 
turn as brown as if a fire had passed over 
them, scorching and withering along its 
course. The tree will be permanently in- 
jured, unless the havoc is diminished. Now 
is the time, while the larvae are still on the 
leaves, and before they begin to crawl down 
the trunk, to give the trees a second spray- 
ing. 

The first time, the spraying was done 
from above, to reach the upper side of the 
leaves. Now, it must be done from below 
to saturate the under side of the foliage. 
Unless the underneath surface is covered 
190 



JUNE 

with the poison, the larvae will escape un- 
hurt. 

In the lovely June days, after the v^arm 
noon hours, one of our pleasures is to see 
that the garden is neat and shipshape. As 
we ramble slowly from bush to border, we 
carry a small basket with scissors, trowel, 
shears and weeder. It is fun to snip off 
the faded flowers, to prune a forgotten 
shrub, to loosen the earth around the peren- 
nial plants, to root up a rash and presump- 
tuous weed. Later this may seem like 
work; now it is only play. 



191 



FOURTH WEEK 

"The chub-faced Dahlia, a little round, a little 
stupid, carves out of soap, lard or wax his regular 
pompons, which will be the ornament of a village 
holiday." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use, 

Did after him the world seduce 
And from the fields the flowers and plants allure, 

Where Nature was most plain and pure. 
He first enclosed within the gardens square 

A dead and standing pool of air, 
And a more luscious earth for them did knead, 

Which stupefied them while it fed. 
The pink grew then as double as his mind; 

The nutriment did change the kind. 
With strange perfumes he did the roses taint, 

And flowers themselves were taught to paint. 
The tulip white did for complexion seek. 

And learned to interline its cheek." 

— A. Marvel. 

The dahlia belongs to that category of 
naturally commonplace flowers which have 
acquired a capacity for distinction. The 
larger part of man's garden flowers were 
artistic in their primitive state — the dahlia 
never was. Man has " vexed Nature " to 
192 



JUNE 

make the dahlia aesthetic. Her beauty is 
exotic, abnormal. The round, '' chub- 
faced," stolid, vacant dahlia of our country 
grandmothers, has been developed into the 
spirited, sensational, showy, and theatrical 
cactus variety, and into that open-eyed in- 
genue, the single dahlia. 

But unless one has a particular predilec- 
tion, or cultivated passion for dahlias, it 
seems as well to reserve them for September 
blooming when other flowers are scarce. 
The list of dahlias is bewildering. A 
grower in Boston advertises seven hundred 
varieties. Another nursery has a hundred 
cactus varieties '' true to name." Some of 
the " offers " in the flower catalogues are 
warranted to produce neurasthenia : " one 
hundred dahlias, each one different " ; "a 
hundred and seventy-five — two hundred 
and twenty-five varieties; each one differ- 
ent." We should be fit subjects for a nerve 
specialist, or the electric chair. 

It is better to buy ten of one kind, than 
one each of ten kinds. And, of course, the 
only use for " a hundred dahlias, each one 
different " would be to plant them in a nur- 
sery as an experiment, so as to decide what 
colour and kind we prefer. But it is suf- 
193 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

ficient to study the catalogues and select 
free-flowering varieties, long stems, and the 
colours and prices that appeal to us. 

The cactus varieties are the most distin- 
guished in form and tone. They have bril- 
liant colouring, strong stems, and are char- 
acterised by their narrow, curling, cleft, or 
crested petals, which are sometimes incurved 
and twisting, and always showy. Out of 
many hundred, the following are good vari- 
eties : Aurora, Dorothy, Queen Alexandra, 
Kriemhilda, Mrs. Macmillan (pink) ; 
Schwan, Mont Blanc, Snowstorm (white) ; 
Crepuscule, Mrs. de Lucca, T. G. Baker, 
Mrs. John Hays Hammond, Goliath (yel- 
low) ; Princess (lilac) ; Advance (scarlet) ; 
J. H. Jackson (dark red). 

I should, perhaps, have used a more en- 
thusiastic term than " good " in speaking of 
these varieties. The catalogues describe T. 
G. Baker as '' sublime," Mrs. John Hayes 
Hammond as " exquisite " ; Kriemhilda as 
" the Queen of the cactus dahlias." My 
own vocabulary seems bromidic and fatuous 
in comparison. 

Of the single varieties, which may be 
called charming, the century type is the best, 
194 



JUNE 

in the different colours, pink, crimson, 
white, maroon. 

Among the peony-flowered dahlias, are 
Giant Edelweiss (white), and Glory of 
Baarn (pink). La Riante (pink), and 
Queen Wilhelmina (white), may be planted 
for a hedge effect. 

The show, pompon, and collarette vari- 
eties are stiff and not suited to the home 
garden or the amateur gardener. 

Dahlias should be planted against a house 
or wall, at the back of a border, as a tem- 
porary hedge, or in a separate part of the 
garden. Their superabundance of leaves 
crowds out other plants. 

The soil should be light and porous, not 
too rich, and well-drained. If the land is 
heavy mix in some sand. When stable 
manure is used it should be worked into the 
ground several months before planting, and 
not come in contact with the tubers. At 
the time of planting use very little fertiliser, 
either bone meal and ashes, or liquid cow 
manure. Later, after the plants are up, 
they may be more freely fed at intervals, 
with sheep or cow manure, or bone meal. 

In planting set the tubers (one eye), flat, 
195 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

in a hill, five or six inches deep. They 
should be two or three feet apart according 
to the space one can give to them. As the 
small plants grow, the ground will need fre- 
quent cultivation, and if they are watered 
the soil should be loosened afterwards and 
not allowed to cake. 

As they grow, dahlias will require rigid 
pruning, and must be tied erect to a stake. 
The tall varieties should be planted at the 
back of the bed, and the dwarf in front, 
with different heights of stakes, from three 
to five feet above ground. 

In the matter of pruning, keep only one 
central stem at first ; as the plant grows more 
vigorous, allow a second stem to grow, and 
then another. But do not allow more than 
three sprouts from the roots, even when the 
plants are full grown. 

The second planting of gladiolus bulbs 
may be done this week, setting them be- 
tween the first batch of bulbs that were 
planted eight inches apart. 

Delphiniums will need to be staked and 
tied, as the tall stalks break and bend in the 
wind. The slender stems are top-heavy 
with their rich heads of bloom. 

The withered rhododendron heads should 
196 



JUNE 

be broken off at the base. It is easier 
to break than to cut them, as they are 
brittle at the neck. The eyes of the new 
wood are forming directly under the flower 
bead and one must be careful not to injure 
or break them. In the fall the buds of next 
year's bloom will already have formed on 
the new wood, and will remain dormant 
through the winter. 

Those who intend to order choice Holland 
bulbs, either from American importers, or 
from the Dutch firm, should send in their 
lists now to s.ecure a good selection. A list 
of good varieties will be given under the 
third week of August, but it is well to be 
forehanded and mail the order for bulbs in 
time for the early importations. American 
grown shrubs and herbaceous plants for fall 
planting need not be ordered until August. 

Bulbs should be bought by the hundred or 
the thousand. Only in masses, or in long, 
thick rows do they make their full ef- 
fect. Narcissi, snowdrops, tulips, crocuses, 
irises, hyacinths, scillas, chionodoxas, 
lilies, eremurus, snowflakes, fritillaria, all 
of these should be ordered now in order to 
secure the best Dutch bulbs. 

Some American dealers, like the Elliott 
197 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Company of Pittsburg, forward one's or- 
der to Holland, and the bulbs are sent di- 
rectly to the consignee in their original pack- 
ages. The best Dutch firm is C. G. van Tu- 
bergen, Jr., of Haarlem, whose New York 
agent is E. J. Krug, 112 Broad Street. Be 
sure to send for van Tubergen's catalogue. 
His bulbs are in every way satisfactory, and 
many of the varieties are considerably 
lower in price than the bulbs grown here. 

Frequently, as with German irises, the 
price of the Holland bulbs per hundred is 
the same as the price of American bulbs per 
ten. This is so with the exquisite Mme. 
Chereau iris, Mrs. H. Darwin, Maori King 
and others. With some of the rarer varie- 
ties, such as Lohengrin and Walhalla, there 
is but small difference in the first cost, and 
with the added custom duty it would amount 
to about the same. 

On the contrary. Hyacinth bulbs can be 
had as cheaply by ordering through an 
American importer such as the Elliott Nur- 
sery. 



198 



JULY 

First Week 

" The immemorial Lily raises his ancient sceptre, 
august, inviolate, which creates around it a zone of 
chastity, silence and light." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

"And the wand-like lily which lifted up, 
As a Maenad, its moonlight coloured cup, 2 
Till the fiery star which is its eye. 
Gazed through the clear dew on the tender sky." 
— Percy B. Shelley. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF JULY ARE: 

Lilies 

Yucca filamentosa 

Delphinium 

Sunflowers (Helianthus) 

Bellflowers (Campanula) 

Hollyhocks 

Iris Japonica 

Nasturtiums 

California poppies {Eschscholtsia'i 

Foxgloves {Digitalis) 

Every good American knows that the first 

week in July may be, and generally is the 

199. 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

hottest of the summer. Its perverse possi- 
bilities run up into three figures. We can- 
not claim any special moral retribution for 
our garden, but I have seen the heat mark 
105° in the shade, and it hung fire at that 
point from sheer suffocation. It is a nat- 
ural sequence that this week should con- 
tain the most explosive day of the year, so 
that we hang between two fires — that of 
the Sun, and that of its rival the Fourth. 
Of the two, Phoebus leads the race, for we 
may legislate a " saner " Fourth, but there 
is no present indication that science can 
make a cooler Sun. 

If, then, at any time, we should expect to 
enjoy at ease the fruits of our labours, it is 
now. If ever our garden is to be a spot of 
soothing and somnolent influence, it is now. 
We have looked forward to this time of re- 
freshment. We have pictured ourselves 
lying in the shade — if not cool shade, at 
least shade — of our apple tree, when the 
shadows are long upon the grass, and the 
fashionable robins indulge in a late and lei- 
surely dinner, when the garden scent sug- 
gests mystery and indolence, and the flowers 
whisper the secrets of the twilight, the bell- 
flower rings its bells to announce the coming 
200 



JULY 

pageant, and the forget-me-nots spread 
their blue tapestry carpet, the pale yuccas 
hold on high their processional lanterns, the 
consecrated lilies follow with their sacri- 
ficial urns accompanied by their cup-bearers 
the poppies, the delphiniums march by in 
hoods dyed with the azure of the sky, the 
iris standard-bearers carry with proud 
grace their purple flags, waving them as they 
walk. Slowly the procession passes before 
the row of martial hollyhocks drawn up at 
attention, and the sunflowers stare in won- 
der at the sight, the nicotiana opens her 
heavy-lidded eyes, the moonflower stirs on 
her hanging stem, languidly awakening 
from her noonday sleep, and the evening 
glory waves a '' bona nox " from her bal- 
cony. 

We, too, are wakened by the silvery cry 
of "bona nox." Was it real? Or a mid- 
summer dream? Supine hope! Deluded 
fancy! We suddenly recall the words of 
our garden philosopher, ringing clear witH 
stern common sense and high morality: 
" The principal value of a private garden is 
not understood," the words reverberate 
grimly in our brain, drugged with the dan- 
gerous wine from the poppy cups ; " it is," 

201 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

says the philosopher, relentlessly, " to teach 
patience and philosophy, and the higher 
virtues, — hope deferred, and expectations 
blighted, leading directly to resignation, and 
sometimes to alienation ; the garden thus be- 
comes a moral agent, a test of character, as 
it was in the beginning." 

But Charles Dudley Warner, the modern 
Epicurus, missed his chance to improve upon 
the first garden philosopher, Adam, when he 
declared, " Woman always did, from the 
first, make a muss in a garden." 

We awake from our mid-summer dream 
to see the wild carrot look us defiantly in the 
face while it tramples the pansies, to see the 
burdock strangle the gentle bellflowers and 
usurp their place, to see chickweed saucily 
chumming with forget-me-nots, to see 
that the earth has grown stiff and crusty 
for want of a drink, while we were sipping 
that fruit cup which soothed us to a de- 
ceptive sleep. 

Our humane and social instinct, succes- 
sor to the now out of fashion Puritan con- 
science and holding in its place the chair of 
ethics, begins to lecture us on our selfish 
monopoly of the shade and lemonade. It 
tells us that this is the most trying season 
202 



JULY 

for the plants and flowers, that they need 
cooling drink as much as we do, that they 
are panting for shade in the shape of mulch. 
How should we like to be rooted to one 
place, dependent for our health and life on 
passive man, friigus consumer e natusf 

Then, as it were, in an illuminating flash, 
we remember that work was the price of the 
fruit that our first ancestor enjoyed for a 
brief moment in his garden. Work, and 
the *' sweat of the brow," which is a polite 
way to speak of the consequences of hoeing 
when the thermometer is at 105°. And we 
turn guiltily to look for watering pot, and 
fork and shovel. 

We must mulch the rhododendrons. 
They have had light and air during the 
growing season, in the two equable months 
of the year; but drought and heat are as 
fatal to them as cold. They need constant 
moisture. Their roots are near the surface, 
and must supply water to their evergreen 
leaves, winter and summer alike. This 
taxes their strength, and unless we help 
them, as nature does in the native forests 
of their genus, they will die, the weakest 
first, the strongest last. 

Cover the beds with a thick layer, at least 
203 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

six inches deep, of peat or of muck and* 
mould from the heap; peat must be bought 
and is not easy to obtain, but leaf-mould 
may be had for a minimum outlay of care 
and forethought. The tidy housewife often 
looks disapprovingly and with forbidding 
eye on rhododendrons because the beds ten 
months in the year, cannot be kept looking 
neat, but must be covered with muck or 
leaves. 

It is perhaps this passion of housewives 
for neatness that deprives many country 
houses of the delight of gardens. This is 
why we see large places where trees alone 
are allowed, and flowers are kept in the 
background to serve merely for cutting pur- 
poses. It may be well to keep the approach 
to the house — the face we turn to the 
street — severe and sightly in winter as well 
as summer. Trees and evergreen shrubs 
and vines can alone accomplish this decorous 
result; they can form the formal and in- 
scrutable mask we turn to the world. 

But away from the multitude, on the side 
we turn to those we love — to family and 
friends — we may surely plant a garden and 
have flowers where they can bloom un- 
ashamed. 

204 



SECOND WEEK 

" Blessed be agriculture ! if one does not have too 
mtich of it. , . . The pleasure of gardening in 
these days, when the thermometer is at ninety, is 
one that I fear I shall not be able to make intelligible 
to my readers, many of whom do not appreciate the 
delight of soaking in the sunshine . . ." 

— Charles Dudley Warner. 

"Weeds have this virtue: they are not easily dis- 
couraged; they never lose heart entirely; they die 
game. If they cannot have the best, they take up 
with the poorest ; if fortune is unkind to them to-day, 
they hope for better luck to-morrow; in all cases 
they make the most of their opportunities." 

— John Burroughs. 

Weeds have not been understood. They 
have been thought perversely immoral ; they 
are courageously moral. They have been 
called useless and vicious; they are useful 
examples of virtue. They are industrious, 
cheerful, resolute, alert; they are plucky, 
persevering, tenacious ; and they are experts 
at rapid transit. What an array of good 
qualities! Enough to spell success in man 
or plant, and the list might be increased. 
205 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Man needs the same qualities in his fight 
with the weeds. It is a question of who 
will win in this highly moral hand-to-hand 
battle. 

Weed, weed, weed ! This is the motto for 
the summer. Weed and water! We may 
do our own watering and weeding and plant- 
ing in the spring, but it shows wisdom to 
have it done by proxy in July and August. 
It will be worth while to hire a man by the 
day or hour to work under direction. 

In a spring and fall garden, where the 
owner is away in mid-summer, it will be 
more satisfactory to have the work done by 
the job, so to speak, or by the month. Make 
a contract with a reliable gardener to keep 
the garden in good condition, cut the grass, 
weed, water, transplant, tie up climbers, 
mulch, and other necessary work, for a 
specified sum per month or week. 

It is not difficult to determine how many 
days a week will be required to do the work. 
A small yard may take only one day, a large 
garden may need four days. A place of an 
acre and a half, with a garden, can be kept 
in good shape, during July and August, with 
three days of work per week. 

The blooms of the hybrid perpetuals are 
206 



JULY 

disappearing, and to secure a second bloom 
in the fall, prune them now — not vigor- 
ously as in early spring, but as a moderate 
trimming back. 

This is the week for the last spraying of 
the roses with whale oil soap. I am grow- 
ing somewhat sensitive about this con- 
tinual mention of spraying, but we must 
remember that a soap douche in hot weather 
is as refreshing to flowers as to us. How 
could we exist without our morning tub? 

Watch for the maple scale, which attacks 
not only the soft maple trees, but also grape 
vines, Virginia creeper, and osage orange. 
At the beginning of July the newly hatched 
scale swarm by the thousand on twigs and 
leaves, and begin to feed ; this is the time to 
fight them. The scale first attack the tips 
of the lower branches, which makes easy the 
work of elimination, by cutting off the in- 
fested parts, without injury to the tree or 
shrub. Be sure to burn or cart away the 
cuttings to prevent the scale from crawling 
onto healthy trees. 

If the scale has spread too far for trim- 
ming, spray, with an oil and soap emulsion, 
the infested region, on the outside of the 
tree. It is not necessary to reach the mid- 
207 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

die of the tree as with other pests. The 
same spray used against the oyster shell 
scale will serve in this case: half a pound 
of whale oil soap melted on the fire in one 
gallon of water; remove from fire and add 
two gallons of kerosene; mix well. Use 
one part of the mixture to ten or fifteen 
parts of cold water. If whale oil soap can- 
not be obtained, a laundry soap that con- 
tains naphtha or kerosene may be substituted. 

If the seeds of biennials were sown in 
April, the small plants are now ready to be 
transplanted to the nursery. Biennials are 
nothing more than annuals that take a year 
to grow before they flower; like annuals 
they will die after their first season of 
bloom, and must, therefore, be raised every 
year and nursed through a twelvemonth. 

Make trenches in the nursery bed about 
eight inches deep, pulverise the earth until 
it is fine and light, and mix with manure. 
Set the small plants six inches apart, and 
water them in the dry July weather. The 
earth must not be allowed to cake and crack, 
but be kept loose, so that air and moisture 
will reach the roots. 

Hollyhocks may be treated as biennials, 
with good results. Sow the freshly ma- 
208 



JULY 

tured seeds in drills, at the sunny end of the 
seed bed; the soil should be porous so that 
the drainage will be good, and should be 
deeply dug and enriched with thoroughly 
decayed manure. By sowing at this time, 
the drought and heat of the summer will be 
largely avoided, and the plants will be less 
subject to the usual hollyhock disease. 

Plant the seeds one inch deep, or less, and 
about four inches apart. Leave a space of 
at least fifteen to eighteen inches between 
the rows. Water the seeds every evening. 
The plants must be protected in winter with 
evergreen boughs or rough straw; if leaves 
are used place boards over them to prevent 
decay and keep them dry. In case the 
leaves of the hollyhocks show rust, they 
must be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture. 

The plants may be transplanted the fol- 
lowing spring to their permanent borders, 
and if protected during the winters will live 
on as perennials. But the first year's bloom 
is the best, and for this reason they are more 
successful as biennials. Chater's strain of 
double hollyhocks reproduce from seed true 
to variety and colour. Other strains are not 
so dependable, and may be fickle on the ques- 
tion of colour, so that if special varieties 
209 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

and combinations of the single hollyhocks 
are wanted, it will be more satisfactory to 
buy the small plants, or reproduce from cut- 
tings. 

The chief point to remember in raising 
hollyhocks, is that they delight in rich feed- 
ing, during the growing season. 



2id 



THIRD WEEK 

**Here in this sequestered close 
Bloom the hyacinth and rose 
Here beside the modest stock 
Flaunts the flaring hollyhock; 
Here, without a pang, one sees 
Ranks, conditions and degrees. 

"All the seasons run their race 
In this quiet resting-place." 

— Austin Dobson. 

Our garden in July should be a " quiet 
resting-place," and as weeds are the only 
enemies of our peace, there is no reason why 
we should not hire a boy to fight our bat- 
tles, while we enjoy our *' sequestered 
close." It is the only rational way to live. 
We ought to pass our time wholly out-of- 
doors ; like Epicurus we should study, exer- 
cise, and teach in our garden ; and like prag- 
matists we should eat and sleep in our gar- 
den and on our porches, although Epicurus 
seems to have lacked only a sleeping porch 
to have set the fashion for the *' passing of 
indoors." 

211 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

We want to add by every device to the 
comfort and enjoyment of this outdoor life. 
An upstairs' verandah may be used in th( 
morning as a breakfast room. If the ve^ 
randah has a roof, hang Japanese screens, oi 
Venetian blinds, v^^hich can be lov^ered en- 
tirely on the sunny side, or only enougli 
to cut off the glaring sky-line on the shady 
side. In case the verandah is uncovered^ 
an av^ning will serve for both roof and 
shade. 

Have a hammock hung across one end, 
comfortable willow chairs, a folding table 
that will serve for a breakfast table, am 
a small table for a few books, magazines, 
and papers. Verandah boxes, filled with 
flowers and vines will be cool looking am 
feeling. But for pure enjoyment, one mea 
should be taken al-fresco in the garden, 
under the shade of trees or shrubbery. 

We of the East are neither as natural, noij 
as modern in our ways of living as our cous- 
ins of the West. My cousins near Chicago 
have delightful outdoor sitting-rooms, sleep- 
ing-rooms, and dining-rooms, where they 
follow their regular occupations, recreations^ 
social intercourse, eating, and sleeping. No 
meal is taken indoors. One end of a long 

212 




GRASS WALK. WINNETKA. 



JULY 

and deep verandah is furnished with rugs, 
lounging chairs, Gloucester hammock, 
tables, screens, jardinieres, tea-table; it is 
not treated as a porch, but as a room. 
Hanging baskets and pots of flowers, and 
long boxes of ferns and flowers, lining the 
porch railing, potted plants, and cut flowers 
in profusion, make a garden of the outdoor 
room. 

The other end of the verandah is fur- 
nished as a simple dining-room, with plain 
but permanent mission chairs and tables. 
Here too, plants and flowers make it a 
bower. Here the family and friends dine 
every evening. This is the real way to live 
in summer. With a little trouble, thought, 
and as much or as little expense as one 
wants to devote to it, one can find health, 
" the enjoyment of sense and imagination, 
and the quiet and ease of the body and 
mind." 

Even if one does not care to afTord elabo- 
rate arrangements for outdoor living, it is 
always possible, and just as enjoyable, to 
make of the porch a camp, and of the meals 
a picnic. But however simple or elaborate 
the details, flowers, vines, and shade are es- 
sential. We want life, not existence; and 
213 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

beauty is one of the necessities, not one of 
the luxuries of real life. 

This plea for a scheme of outdoor living 
in summer, may not seem to be closely allied 
to gardening, but it is in the ideal and the 
aesthetic sense. To get the good of the gar- 
den, we want to live in it and near it, not 
merely to walk through it; we want to en- 
joy it, which is more than admiring it; we 
want to make it a part of ourselves, not only 
a setting for our house; we want it for in- 
timacy and companionship, not for show 
and ornament; we want to bring it to our 
threshold, so that the garden will be part 
of the home, not a mere appendage. 

Now for the work of the week: by the 
middle of July even the hybrid tea roses 
will rest from blooming during the great 
heat, and not start on their second crop un- 
til the end of August. It is vacation time 
for them. During these six weeks they will 
need either water or protection. Give the 
beds a good weeding, loosen and turn up 
the earth with a hand fork or hoe, and cover 
the surface with a layer of cow manure, 
turned three times, or rotten leaves and 
loam ; but the manure is best. 

Watch now for mildew and black spot, 
214 



JULY 

and spray once a week, if necessary, with 
sulphide of potassium (a half -ounce to one 
gallon of water) ; continue this until toward 
the last of August. This is merely to pro- 
tect the foliage and prevent it from falling. 
The plants will not be seriously injured, but 
will De weakened, if the mildew is allowed 
to attack the leaves unchecked. 

The stalks of the delphiniums that have 
finished flowering may be cut down to the 
ground, so as to secure continued bloom 
through the summer. As soon as one set 
of stems are cut down, another group will 
shoot up and there will be a succession of 
bloom. But in time this will weaken the 
plant and produce smaller blooms. 

Dahlias that were planted early will need 
staking by this time, especially if only two 
or three stalks were allowed to grow from 
the roots. 

In the North this is a favourable time for 
sowing the seeds of perennials. Use seeds 
of this year's blooming, and sow in the seed- 
bed; soak the seeds for twenty-four hours 
before planting, to hasten germination. 
The bed should be watered every evening 
for about two weeks. I will not repeat the 
directions for planting, that we^e given 
^15 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

under the third week of May. There is 
this advantage in sowing perennials now, 
that by the time the small plants are above 
ground, the worst heat of the summer will 
have passed, and there will still be ample 
time for them to grow and be transplanted, 
some time in September, so as to get well- 
rooted before heavy frosts. 



216 



FOURTH WEEK 

" In every garden, four things are necessary to be 
provided for, flowers, fruit, shade, and water; and 
whoever lays out a garden, without all these, must 
not pretend it in any perfection." 

— Sir William Temple. 

"And on the stream whose inconstant bosom 
Was prankt under boughs of embowering blossom, 
With golden and green light, slanting through 
Their heaven of many a tangled hue, 

** Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, 

And starry river-buds glimmered by, 

And around them the soft stream' did glide and dance 

With a motion of sweet sound and radiance." 

— Percy B. Shelley. 

As an element in a landscape, natural 
water of any kind — brook, river, or lake 
— adds a charm, an individuality, and a va- 
riety that nothing else can give. Artificial 
water effects in landscape gardening, if crea- 
ted by an artist, may be an element of pic- 
turesque beauty; but in the hands of the 
amateur they hold many chances of failure. 
Still, the love of water is so general that 
many persons are not satisfied without a bit 
217 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

of water or a water garden of some kind or 
of any size, whether a " three-by-five " 
trough, a small pool, a half barrel, an arti- 
ficially heated tank, a nature-like pond, or a 
sumptuous basin. 

If ever our thoughts turn to water, it is 
in July and August. Those of us who have 
no water garden, may find it refreshing to 
plan one for next year, and a cool pond with 
white lilies floating on its surface seems an 
appropriate current of thought at this time. 

Work may be begun even now, if the plan 
is for an artificial basin. In any case the 
garden should be planned now, while the 
work of excavation and building may be 
done in September or October, and even the 
soil prepared in the autumn, so that it will 
mellow by the following spring. 

Water effects are difficult to handle. In 
the right place, and treated in the right way, 
they are distinctively decorative and give a 
peculiar sense of stillness and of de- 
tachment. They are better suited to large 
areas than to small lots. It is possible to 
have a lily basin as the central feature of 
a formal garden, yet a fountain, with the 
idea of height and of falling water, is more 
effective. 

218 



JULY 

In a small enclosed garden, a central cir- 
cular basin is almost the only method of 
introducing water plants. It should be 
kept simple in effect and design, planted only 
with lilies, stocked with gold-fish, and en- 
circled with a border or rim of narcissus 
poeticus, and forget-me-nots, or California 
poppies. The only other possible water 
feature in a small enclosed garden, would 
be a narrow basin or moat outlining the gar- 
den on three sides, inside the hedge. At 
the end opposite the entrance to the garden, 
the moat should be cut at right angles by a 
short path, with a stone seat standing at the 
end against green planting. This will give 
an opportunity for simple architectural 
features, such as stone vases of good design 
raised on bases, at the angles of the basin 
rim. 

This long moat will need a background 
and it will be desirable to leave a space be- 
tween the hedge or boundary, and the basin, 
to allow for a massed planting of shrubs 
and of certain effective flowers such as Jap- 
anese iris, canterbury bells, and foxgloves. 

In a larger, terraced formal garden, there 
may be a number of striking water effects 
evolved. In any case have the water on the 
219 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

lower terrace, approached by long, low stone 
steps with stone coping. A spectacular ar- 
rangement is a long basin, placed length- 
wise with the approach from above, with 
heavy plantings of trees and shrubs on each 
side and a turf walk between the planting 
and the basin. Much of the water may be 
left free for the play of light and shade in 
the reflections of leaves and branches. 

To complete this dramatic picture, there 
should be a stuccoed casino rising from the 
further end of the basin and mirrored in its 
waters. This may be a water castle that 
few can build in stone. Those who can 
have the basin minus the castle, may turn 
the basin transversely, and bank the further 
side with trees and shrubbery, making this 
the limit of the garden. With the trans- 
verse arrangement we may think less of the 
poetry and reflected romance, than of the 
water plants, and indulge in a varied min- 
gling of aquatics. 

In planning a nature-like pond, there will 
be large scope for picturesque planting on 
the banks, of moisture loving shrubs and 
flowers. We must remember that in na- 
ture, water is always on a lower level than 
the surrounding land, it is at the bottom, in 

220 



JULY 

valleys, depressions, hollows, or gullies. 
And if we imitate nature we must arrange 
that there shall be more or less of a slope 
in the ground to the pond below. If the lay 
of the land does not admit of a drop, it will 
be preferable to have a frankly artificial and 
conventional basin. 

But supposing a favourable site for a 
pool or pond, we can plan a charming bank, 
planted at the back with trees, and in front 
of these an irregular grouping of shrubs 
that love wet places: azalea viscosa at the 
back, ilex verticillata, the deliciously scented 
cephalanthus occidentalis, nemopanthes 
canadensis or mountain holly, the brilliant 
hibiscus moscheutos or swamp rose-mal- 
low, spiraea tomentosa, and on the front 
the low rhodora canadensis, and cornus 
canadensis. 

In front of the shrubs, may be planted 
a selection of water loving flowers, some of 
the lovely wild orchids, blue gentians, and 
lobelias, the acorus Japonica or sweet 
flag, marsh marigold, sagittaria Japonica, 
lizard's tail and cat tail, calla palustris, 
several varieties of the iris, especially the 
Japonica and pseudacorus, and many small, 
low blooms to edge the pond like forget-me- 

221 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

nots and trilliums. This planting will be 
on the further side of the pond; the front 
will be kept green, with nothing but grass 
or myrtle to the water's edge. Water lilies 
may be grown in tubs or half barrels sunk 
in the ground. Fill them half full with soil 
covered with an inch of sand, and allow 
about eight inches for water. Some of the 
tubs may be half hogsheads and tierces for 
the large plants. One could have a double 
row or circular grouping of the tubs, placed 
with some space between. A row of stones 
around each tub would hold in place the earth 
between, which should be good, rich loam. 
In these spaces, one may plant narcissus, 
the brilliant dwarf stone-crop, forget-me- 
nots, marsh marigolds, and gentians. 

On the North side, to protect the tubs 
from cold winds, plant some of the marsh 
shrubs, especially mallows and azalea vis- 
cosa, with tall Japanese irises in front. 

This would be the easiest form of water 
garden to have, and would be suited to a 
picturesque, or old-fashioned garden. In 
a formal garden we should want a regular 
cemented tank or basin. 

An artificial basin of any size should be 
two feet deep. After making the excava- 

222 



JULY 

tion, if the soil is hard clay to the depth of 
a foot, it may be tamped and pounded 
firmly, and covered with a thick coat of ce- 
ment. But it is usually preferable to pave 
the bottom v^ith cobble stones or old bricks 
laid in cement. Build the sides of the tank 
with brick or stone eight inches thick, and 
sloping inv^ard tov^ards the bottom. 

It is v^ell to cover the inside and outside 
of the wall and the bottom with a layer of 
cement to prevent freezing. The upper 
edge of the tank should be on a level with 
the surrounding ground, and one may have 
a low stone coping on top if he wishes to 
mark the limits of the basin for decorative 
effect. 

In a large tank, or any basin in which dif- 
ferent kinds of aquatics are to be grown, 
partitions at the ends should be built, one 
foot high, of bricks placed on edge and laid 
in cement. These compartments may meas- 
ure three or four feet wide by six feet long, 
and will hold groups of three nelumbiums 
or nymphseas of a kind. In this way luxu- 
riant growers like nyphsea tuberosa, which 
spread rapidly, will be confined within limits 
and not crowd out other kinds; and nelu- 
biums, which require at least eighteen inches 

22Z 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

of soil and only six inches of water, may be 
separated from other aquatics. The best 
way to plant the main part of the basin, is 
to set out each lily in a separate box and 
sink the boxes in the tank. This method 
is especially suited to planting tender nym- 
phaeas which must be lifted in the fall. 
Hardy nymphaeas may be set out in the 
main basin if planted far apart. 

There should be an exit arranged for the 
water, at the bottom of the tank so that it 
may be emptied, and also a waste-pipe, or a 
stand-pipe near the top for the overflow. 
A lily basin should be in a warm location, 
where it will get the full heat of the sun. 

When the tank is ready and the cement 
hardened, fill in with ten inches of compost, 
covered with a couple of inches of sand, ex- 
cept in the compartments for nelumbiums 
in which the sand should be omitted. 

Water lilies require a rich, moist soil in 
which to grow. It may be muck and mud 
from the bottom of a pond or swamp, made 
up chiefly of humus or rotted vegetable mat- 
ter. But a rich, black, friable garden loam 
or leaf mould is fully as satisfactory. 
Either of these soils should be thoroughly 
mixed with one-third to a half of well-rot- 

2^4 



JULY 

ted cow manure, and a small quantity of 
bone meal, at the rate of one pound to a 
wheelbarrow of the compost. 

Gypsum, or land plaster, makes a good 
top-dressing to be applied to the surface of 
the soil, in addition to the other fertilisers. 
When the nymphaeas are planted, two in- 
ches of sand will be added on top of the 
gypsum.^ 

1 Directions for planting Water lilies, and the 
named varieties will be found under the first week 
m May. 



225 



I 



I 



AUGUST 
First Week 

" Now, Meliboeus, prithee graft thy pears, 
And range thy vines! . . ." 

— Vergil. 

"He bids th' ill-natured Crab produce 
The gentler Apple's Winy Juice; 
He does the savage Hawthorn teach 
To bear the Medlar and the Pear, 
He bids the rustick Plum to rear 
A noble Trunk, and be a Peach." 

— Abraham Cowley. 



.^ "In all trees you raise, have some regard to the 

' stock, as well as the graft or bud; for the first will 

have a share in giving taste and season to the fruits 

it produces, how little soever it is usually observed 

by our gardeners." 

— Sir William Temple. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OE AUGUST ARE: 

Anchusa Dropmore 
Monkshood (Aconitum) 

Sunflowers {Soldi d'Or, multiUorus maximus) 
Funkia subcordata grandiflora 
Golden glow {Rudbeckia laciniata) 
Phlox 

Snapdragons {Antirrhinum) 
22y 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 

OF AUGUST— Continued. 
Cosmos 

Shirley poppies 
Sweet peas 
Salpiglossis 
Stocks 

Forget-me-nots 
Petunias 

Morning Glory (Ipomosa) 
Nicotiana 

Classic agriculturists and seventeenth" 
century garden enthusiasts seem ahke to 
have been fascinated by the sport of graft- 
ing and budding. 

"We nowhere Art do so triumphant see, 
As when it Grafts or Buds the Tree ; " 

declares Abraham Cowley, and after enlarg- 
ing on its power to " over-rule " and 
'* master " Nature, he exclaims: 

"Who would not joy to see his conqu'ring Hand 
O'er all the vegetable world command?" 

Budding, like many other things, has 
passed with us from poetry to plain prose, 
from pleasure to business, from the amateur 
gardener to the professional nurseryman. 

But why should we not amuse ourselves 
with it as a pastime, or study it as a matter 
of research? Budding is not difficult, and I 
228 



AUGUST 

agree with Cowley that there is fascination 
in assisting in the creation of a tree. 

As we all know, fruit trees are the trees 
most commonly budded. Roses also are 
budded, lilacs, tree-peonies, and other 
shrubs and plants. It is a large field for in- 
dividual experiment — perhaps for discov- 
ery. 

The most ordinary wood used for the 
stock of shrubs is the hawthorn, on account 
of its extreme hardiness. For budding 
roses, the briar is the best stock. With fruit 
trees the stock is a strong variety of the 
same kind of fruit, the bud being often 
taken from a choicer strain. 

Budding is done on very young stock, 
either on a year-old plant, or on a tree 
raised from seed which was planted the 
previous April — four months' old stock. 
The bud should be inserted close to the 
ground; in roses, as close as possible to the 
root, or about two inches above the fork 
where the branches break out from the root. 
It is, of course, important that the point of 
the bud should be below the level at which 
the plant will be eventually set in the 
ground, so as to diminish the chances of 
new growth from the stock. 
229 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

One may have a plant that he wishes to 
reproduce, and which cannot be propagated 
from seed, or which does not reproduce from 
seed true to colour and variety. Cut a twig 
from the desired plant, and with a sharp 
knife cut off a bud with a long, narrow piece 
of the bark attached. The piece of bark 
which holds the bud, may be from one to 
two inches long, and extends both above 
and below the small bud. 

Cut two slits in the bark of the stock: 
one lengthwise with the trunk, and the other 
at right angles across the top, like St. An- 
thony's cross, so that the bark can be peeled 
back. Insert the bud, or the pointed piece 
of bark to which the bud is attached, in the 
slit made in the stock; turn down the loose 
bark over the inserted piece, and bind them 
together with a soft tape. 

Leave on the binding until about the first 
week in September, which will give three 
weeks for the bud to unite with the stock. 
In the following spring the limb of the 
stock should be cut off about an inch above 
the bud. 

Budding requires no exertion, interests 
the mind, satisfies the love of experimenta- 
tion, kindles the fancy, and excites antici^ 
230 



AUGUST 

pations that cannot be disappointed for a 
whole year. These qualities make of bud- 
ding a pleasant occupation for the lethargic 
and dull days of August, when one is justi- 
fied in a certain impatience toward work, in- 
structions, preachments, advice, and all 
things dry. 

Now, reader, "prithee graft thy pears," 
and "bid the rustick Plum" to "be a 
Peach." 



231 



SECOND WEEK 

" With whatever we may choose to plant our gar- 
den ... it needs digging, watering, and, most of 
all weeding." 

— Vernon Lee. 

"Weeds are so full of expedients, and the one 
engrossing purpose with them is to multiply. The 
wild onion multiplies at both ends. Toad-flax travels 
under ground and above ground. Never allow a 
seed to ripen, and yet it will cover your- field. Cut 
off the head of the wild carrot, and in a week there 
are five heads; cut off these, and by Fall there are 
ten looking defiance at you from the same root 
. . . Weeds are great travellers; they are, in- 
deed, the tramps of the vegetable world. They are 
going east, west, north, south; they walk; they fly; 
they swim; they steal a ride; they travel by rail, 
by flood, by wind; they go under ground, and they 
go above, across lots, and by the highway." 

— John Burroughs. 

There is little new work to be attended to 
in the early part of August. The refrain 
is the same as for July : weed, water, spray. 

Keep the beds weeded, and the earth 
turned up ; do not allow it to cake and crack, 
but have the surface loose, fine and pulver- 
232 



MlUGUST 

ised, so that the moisture can pass through 
to the roots of the plants. 

Water the flowers in the late afternoon, 
or after sundown, not with a sprinkler, but 
with the open nozzle of the watering-pot; 
give them a thorough wetting that will soak 
through to the roots. It is the roots that 
need refreshment, and they will supply in- 
side moisture to the leaves and blooms, 
which will be more effectual than an ex- 
ternal sprinkle that quickly dries. Water 
all the growing plants. Pansies especially 
need moisture; after a rain they increase in 
size and numbers, and the colours are richer. 
Always water them during dry weather. 

Spray the roses once a week with sul- 
phide of potassium, for mildew or black 
spot. And tie up the new shoots of climb- 
ing roses, and other vines. 

If the flowers are not blooming as they 
should, scatter a small quantity of bone 
meal over the beds, but not near the roots, 
before a threatened rain. The blooms will 
improve in quantity and brilliancy. 

Keep the flowers picked every day. It 

may not be possible to gather daily all that 

bloom, such as the prolific poppies, and 

some of the plants may be intended merely 

233 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

for garden decoration. But the pansies and 
sweet peas need daily pruning, and the more 
they are picked, the more freely they will 
bloom. All annuals, in fact, flower more 
abundantly when they are constantly culled. 

Cut off the withered flowers, and any 
young pods that may have formed, unless 
one wants some of the plants, such as pop- 
pies and foxgloves, to self-sow, or unless it 
is intended to grow flowers from one's own 
seed. Nothing repays as well as a garden 
for the effort to keep up appearances. 

During the summer heat and drought it 
is well to mulch the trees and the perennial 
border with clippings from the lawn, to hold 
the moisture. 

The grass will need cutting less often, 
probably not more than once in ten days or 
two weeks, unless the season is unusually 
wet. 

The small perennial plants, grown from 
seed that was sown in May or June, are 
ready to be transplanted either to the nurs- 
ery row, for those who believe in 
several transplantings, or to the permanent 
beds. It is well for everyone concerned, 
to do this work in the late afternoon. As 
the small plants are lifted, plunge them in a 
234 



AUGUST 

pail of water, and be careful to take them 
up with all their roots and feelers. Water 
them thoroughly after they have been 
moved to their new quarters. 

To be successful with a garden, we must 
be foreminded. It is not too early to send 
for the fall catalogues of trees, shrubs, and 
plants. While we sit on the porch, or in 
the shade of the garden, we can plan for the 
fall planting, study varieties, and compare 
cost, for even the first-class nurseries differ 
in their prices. We can note the specialties 
of each nursery; one firm makes a specialty 
of evergreens, another of shrubs and herba- 
ceous perennials; there is the peony 
specialist, the pansy specialist, the rose 
specialist. 

We may want to change or improve the 
borders, make different colour combina- 
tions, and not merely colour but flower com- 
binations ; we must notice where plants need 
to be replaced; and if we are enthusiasts we 
shall want to try new varieties and species. 
All this requires thought, and quiet plan- 
ning. 

The fall orders should be sent by the 
middle of August, with exact dates when 
the plants are to be shipped. In this way. 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

the best stock will be secured, prompt de- 
livery, and no chance of getting left-overs. 
A suggestive list will be given under the 
following week. If the bulbs were not or- 
dered in July, they must be ordered now 
from American growers. 



236 



I 



THIRD WEEK 

" Perhaps, after all, it is not what you get out of 
a garden, but what you put into it, that is the most 
remunerative . . . Next to deciding when to 
start your garden, the most important matter is 
what to put in it. It is difficult to decide what to 
order for dinner on a given day: how much more 
oppressive is it to order in a lump an endless vista of 
dinners, so to speak! For, unless your garden is 
a boundless prairie, you must make a selection of 
what you will raise in it." 

— Charles Dudley Warner. 

The orders for plants and trees to be set 
out in the fall, should be sent this week. 
The following is a tentative list of good 
varieties of bulbs, plants, shrubs, and ever- 
greens, from which selections could be 
made. 

BULBS 

Chionodoxa : 

gigantea. 

Luciliae. 

sardensis. 
CoLCHicuM ( fall-flowering) : 

autumnale album; white. 

autumnale album plenum; rare, double white. 
237 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

CoLCHicuM (fall-flowering) — Continued. 
autumnale flore pleno; double rosy red. 
autumnale major; rosy purple, 
autumnale minor; rosy pink. 

Crocus (spring-flowering) : 

Hebe ; white. 

King of the Whites; white. 

Mont Blanc; white. 

Albion; violet striped. 

Grand lilac, early. 

Johan; lilac. 

Mme. Mina; violet striped. 

Purpurea grandiflora; purple. 

Antigone; soft blue. 

Lord Palmerston ; dark blue. 

Maximilian ; china blue. 

Cloth of gold; yellow. 
Crocus (fall-flowering) : 

iridiflorus ; purple. 

sativus ; saffron. 

speciosus; bright blue. 

speciosus Aitchisoni; large flowers. 

speciosus albus ; white. 

Zonatus; pale lilac. 
Galanthus (snowdrop) : 

Caucasicus. 

Elwesi. 

Fosteri. 

nivalis flore pleno, 

plicatus (Crimean). 
Hyacinth : 

La Grandesse; white. 

White Lady; early, white. 

La Franchise; early, rosy white. 

Mme. van der Hoop; rosy white. 

Enchantress; early, light blue. 
238 



AUGUST 

Hyacinth — Continued. 

La Peyrouse; light blue. 

Perle Brillante; light blue. 

Queen of the Blues; light blue. 

King of the Blues ; dark blue. 

Menelik; dark blue. 

Baron von Thuyll; early, pale rose. 

Cavaignac; pale rose. 

Gigantea; early pale rose. 

Jacques; pale rose. 

Gertrude; early, deep rose. 

Koh-i-nohr; early, deep rose. 

Etna; carmine. 

Roi des Beiges; carmine. 

General Pelissier; early, red. 

La Victoire; early, red. 

Charles Dickens; lilac. 

Distinction; reddish purple. 

Hon. Mr. Balfour; early, violet. 

L'Esperance; dark purple. 

City of Haarlem; early, yellow. 

Ida; early, yellow. 

King of the yellows; yellow. 

Obelisk; yellow. 
Iris: 

English; blue, violet, white. 

Histrio; early, bright blue. 

Histrioides; early, bright blue. 

Persica; early, dark violet, blue. 

Regelio-cyclus ; violet, brown, purple, veined. 

Reticulata, earliest; maroon, purple, gold. 

Spanish; yellow, white, blue. 

Warleyensis ; blue. 
Leucojum (snow-flake) : 

aestivum. 

vernum autumnale. 

vemum carpathicum. 

239 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

LiLIUM : 

canadense; bell-shaped, yellow, and red. 

candidum (Madonna lily) ; white. 

Grayi; orange dotted purple. 

longiflorum; white. 

superbum; turk's cap, orange dotted purple. 

tenuifolium'; coral-red. 
MuscARi (grape hyacinth) : 

azureum; early, bright blue. 

botryoides; gentian blue. 

botryoides album; white. 

conicum; black blue. 

elegans ; bright blue. 

Heavenly Blue; bright blue. 

paradoxum; dark blue. 

plumosum; feathered. 

polyanthum; large flowers. 
Narcissus : 

* Golden Spur; early, yellow, trumpet. 
Obvallaris; early, yellow, trumpet. 

* Henry Irving; early, yellow, trumpet. 

* Victoria; early, bicolor, trumpet. 

* Mrs. Thompson ; early, white, trumpet. 
Incomparabilis, 

* Queen Bess ; early, cup and saucer. 

* Sir Watkin ; early, cup and saucer. 

* Emperor ; middle, yellow, trumpet. 

* Empress ; middle, bicolor, trumpet. 

* Horsfieldi ; middle, bicolor, trumpet. 
Wm. Goldring; middle, white, trumpet. 
Incomparabilis, 

Stella Superba; middle, cup and saucer. 
Glory of Leiden; late, yellow, trumpet. 
Madame Plemp; late, bicolor, trumpet. 
Madame de Graaff; late, white, trumpet. 

* Those marked with an asterisk are the best low- 
priced varieties. 

240 



\ 



AUGUST 

'N ARCI5SUS— Continued. 
Incomparabilis, 

Gloria Mundi; late, cup and sauceVo 
Grandee ; trumpet. 
Maximus ; yellow, trumpet. 
Mrs. Camm ; white, trumpet. 

* Barri conspicuus. 

* Maurice de Vilmorin. 
Incomparabilis, 

Sirius. 

Aureole. 
Leedsi, 

Ariadne. 

* Mrs. Langtry. 

Duchess of Westminster. 

Peach. 
Double, 

Incomparabilis plenus. 

Orange Phoenix. 

Sulphur Phoenix. 

Van Sion. 
Poetaz, 

Alsace. 

Aspasia. 

Elvira. 
Poeticus (pheasant's eye). 

Glory. 

grandiflora. 

King Edward VII. 

Ornatus. 

poetarum. 

PuscHKiNiA Libanotica; early, blue-white, dark 
stripe. 

SCILLA : 

campanulata ; blue, white, rose, 
sibirica ; early, bright blue, white. 

241 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Snowdrop, (see galanthus) : 
Tulip (to be planted in November) : 
Single early. 

Cottage maid; rosy pink. 

Due van Tholl; violet. 

Due van Tholl, maximus; white. 

Eleonora; dark violet. 

Joost van Vondel; white. 

Koh-i-Nohr; maroon red. 

Mrs. Cleveland; soft rose. 

Pottebakker; white. 

President Cleveland; white, rose tipped. 

Queen of the Netherlands; rosy white. 
Double early, 

Blanche Hative; pure white. 

La Candeur; pure white. 

Lac van Haarlem; violet. 

Lord Beaconsfield; bright rose. 

Salvator Rosa; dark rose. 
Darwin, 

Baronne de la Tonnaye; carmine-pink. 

Clara Butt; rose. 

Dream; lilac. 

La Tulipe noire; black. 

La Candeur; white. 

Psyche; soft rose. 

Rev. H. Ewbank; soft heliotrope. 
Single Late, Cottage. 

Gesneriana spathulata; scarlet, blue eye. 

Innocence; white. 

Le Reve; old rose. 

Picotee; rosy white. 
Tulipa Greigi; choice and expensive. 

PERENNIAL PLANTS 

Aquilegia (columbine) : 

Canadensis; early, bright red and yellow. 

242 



AUGUST 

Aquilegia — Continued. 

Coerulia; early, bright blue and white. 

Coerulia candidissima; early, pure white. 

Glandulosa (Siberian) ; early, blue and white. 

Skinneri (Mexican) ; middle. 

Chrysantha alba; middle. 

Californica; middle. 

Jaetschauri; middle. 

Chrysantha; middle. 

Delicatissima ; middle, soft rose. 

Alpina; late, blue. 

Glandulosa vera; late, blue. 

Helenae; late, blue. 

Stuarti; late, blue. 

Nivea grandiflora; late, white. 

Coerulea lutea; late, yellow. 

Olympica; late, mauve. 

Haylodgensis. 

Oxysepala; rare. 
Delphinium : 

Belladonna. 

English mixed. 

Form'osum. 

Form'osum coelestinuni'. 

Gold Medal Hybrids. 

Grandiflora. 

Hybridum Moerheimi. 

King of Delphiniums. 

Lamartin. 
DiCTAMNUs (gas plant) ; white flowers. 
Hemerocalis (day lily) : 

aurantiaca major; July and August, free-flowering. 

Florham; June and July, golden yellow. 
Peony : 

Festiva Maxima; white. 

Marie Lemoine; white. 

243 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Peony — Continued. 

Candidissima ; white. 

Dorchester; white. 

Avalanche; white. 

Lady Leonora Bramwell; silvery-rose. 

L'Esperance ; rose. 

Perfection; light pink. 

Delicatissima ; clear pink. 

Claire Dubois; glossy pink. 

Beranger; mauve-pink. 

Felix Crousse; brilliant red. 

Rubra Superba; crimson. 

Louis Van Houtte; violet-red. 

Tenuifolia; bright crimson. 

Japanese Dragon; dark crimson. 

Japanese White. 

La Tulipe; flesh pink, striped carmine. 

Philomele; yellow and soft pink. 

De Candolle; brilliant currant. 

Mad. Calot; salmon-white. 

Mad. Crousse; white, edged carmine. 

Couronne D'Or; white and yellow. 

Wittmanniana ; sulphur yellow. 
Pap AVER Orientale (Oriental Poppy) : 

Mahogany; crimson-maroon. 

Mammoth; scarlet, black center. 

Princess Louise; salmon-pink. 
Phlox Decussata: 

Amazone; pure white. 

Anna Crozy; white. 

Moliere; clear salmon. 

Subulata (creeping) ; rose pink. 

Subulata alba; pure white. 

Subulata G. F. Wilson ; light blue. 

Subulata Model; bright pink. 
Stenanthium Robustum; fleecy white bloom. 
244 



AUGUST 

SHRUBS 
Berberis : 

ilicifolia; for winter foliage. 

Thunbergii; fall foliage, red and ntarooru 

vulgaris purpurea; purple leaved. 
Callicarpa purpurea; purple berries in autumn. 
Clematis (bush) : 

davidiana ; blue flowers. 

integrifolia ; large purple flowers. 

recta; white flowers. 
Crataegus Cordata; for winter fruit. 
Cydonia (Japanese quince) : 

Japonica; brilliant red. 

Japonica alba; white flowers. 
Daphne Mezereum ; pink flowers. 
Deutzia : 

candidissima ; double, snow white. 

crenata rosea plena; double pink. 

gracilis ; low, graceful habit. 

Lemoinei; dwarf, white. 

Pride of Rochester; double white, tinged pink. 
ExocHORDA grandiflora; white flowers. 

FORSYTHIA : 

suspensa; drooping. 

viridissima; yellow flowers. 
Hibiscus : 

Syriacus; select the white and pink. 

moscheutas; the well-known marshmallow. 

Meehan's ; white and pink. 
Hydrangea : 

arborescens grandiflora; round white heads. 

paniculata grandiflora; large, pointed heads. 
Ilex verticilata; red berries in winter. 
Lilac (see Syringa). 

^5 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

LoNiCERA (bush honeysuckle) : 
Bella Candida; pink, and white, 
fragrantissima ; early, sweet-scented. 
Tartarica grandiflora; pink, and white. 

Philadelphus (mock orange) : 

coronarius; for screen. 

grandiflorus; large flowers. 

Lem'oinei; very sweet-scented. 
Rhus Typhina; for autumn foliage. 

Spir^a : 

prunifolia; double, white. 

Thunbergii; single,, white. 

Van H'outtei; graceful, full-flowered. 
Symphoricarpos vulgaris; red berries in autumn. 
Syringa (lilac) : 

Alba grandiflora. 

Belle de Nancy, 

Congo. 

Jacques Calot. 

Mme. Casimir Perier. 

President Grevy. 
Viburnum : 

opulus; white flowers, scarlet berries. 

tomentosum plicatum; for shrubbery. 
Weigela : 

Candida; the only good weigela. 
Grapes (for pergolas) : 

Catawba. 

Concord. 

Niagara. 

EVERGREENS 

Buxus (box) : 
sempervirens ; for formal effects, bears shearing, 
suffruticosa; for edging. 
246 



AUGUST 

JuNiPERUS (juniper) : 

communis aurea; dwarf, golden foliage. 

Virginiana, var. glauca; compact, conical form. 
PiCEA (spruce) : 

alba; for windbreaks. 

excelsa (Norway) ; for massing, short lived. 

orientalis; specimen trees. 

pungens Kosteriana; bright blue. 
Retinospora (Japanese cedar) : 

obtusa; hardy south of Philadelphia. 

plumosa; feathery foliage. 

squarrosa; steel-blue foliage. 
Taxus (yew) : 

cuspidata nana; shear severely. 
Thuya (arborvitae) : 

compacta; dwarf. 

Hoveyi; for formal effects. 

occidentalis (American) ; for hedges, shear lightly. 
TsuGA (hemlock spruce) : 

canadensis; for hedges. 

var. macrophylla; dwarf, for formal effects. 

Caroliniana; for hedges, open habit. 
LiGU STRUM (privet) : 

ibota (Japanese) ; very hardy, 
var. Regel's ; pendant, graceful habit. 

ovalifolium (California) ; large leaves, habit up- 
right. 

vulgare; small leaves; habit spreading. 



247 



FOURTH WEEK 

"Here is the Marigold, who breaks up with her 
brightness the green of the borders. The Poppy 
exerts himself to fill with light his cup torn by the 
morning wind. The rough Larkspur, in his peas- 
ant's blouse, who thinks himself more beautiful than 
the sky. The Mallows, or Lavateras, like demure 
misses, feel the tenderest blushes of fugitive modesty 
mount to their corollas at the slightest breath. The 
Nasturtium paints his water colours, or screams like 
a parakeet climbing up the bars of its cage." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

Evergreens may be planted at any time 
except in mid-winter and mid-summer, and 
even then they may be planted by experi- 
enced professionals. April and September 
are the usual months, but they are also the 
busiest months of the year, and the gardener 
has already more work than he can do well. 
iWhy not reserve those months for setting 
out deciduous trees and plants that cannot 
be planted in off-seasons? Why not plant 
evergreens at the end of August when there 
is little else to be done? 

On one condition : have as large a ball of 
248 



AUGUST 

roots and earth as possible, and at once wrap 
a wet bag of burlap tightly around the ball. 
The roots of evergreens, being full of resin, 
dry much more quickly than those of de- 
ciduous trees, and should not be left open to 
the air for a moment. 

If evergreens are to be transplanted from 
the woods, cut a deep trench around the 
tree, and dig out the earth, following the 
outer edge of the circle. When a good 
trench has been made, cut under the tree; 
do not lift it until the roots are cleanly and 
entirely cut. Trim any broken or ragged 
roots smoothly, and leave the large roots 
clean-cut at the ends. Keep all the earth 
that is possible, in the ball of roots, and 
cover immediately with a wet canvas or 
burlap bag. 

Large trees should have been root-pruned 
six months before, and even small trees will 
have a better chance of prosperity if they 
were root-pruned in June. Trees from the 
nursery should always come protected with 
moss and bagging to keep in the moisture. 

Evergreens require more moisture than 
deciduous plants for the reason that they 
give out moisture through their leaves, dur- 
ing the entire year, and this must be con- 
249 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

stantly supplied and renewed by their roots. 
So that the roots and trunk are a perpetual 
aqueduct for the transmission of water 
and the water must come from the ground. 
They must have a deep, well-drained, moist 
sub-soil. 

If a hedge is to be planted, make a trench 
three feet deep, and six feet wide. If 
single trees, dig a hole three feet in depth 
and six feet in diameter. Fill the bottom 
of the trench or hole with one foot of 
broken stone, flagging, or tiles, anything 
that will make a free drainage. In a clay 
or hard-pan soil, the trench should be four 
feet deep, the lower two feet of earth should 
be discarded and the space filled with stones 
and ashes. 

Place a layer of sods, top downward, on 
the stones, unless the sod is needed for 
patching the lawn or edging flower beds. 
Fill in with thoroughly pulverised garden 
soil, which has been mixed with one-fourth 
manure, well-rotted and broken up to a fine 
powder. The top layer, heaped up three or 
four inches above the surrounding surface, 
should be rich top soil. 

In planting a hedge, it is well to set out 
young stock, not so small as to make it dis- 
250 



AUGUST 

heartening to watch its slow growth, but 
not larger than two, to two and a half, feet 
high. These should be planted two feet 
apart. When immediate results are wanted, 
large trees, especially of the American ar- 
borvitse, may be planted with fair success, 
but they will never grow as dense as 
younger plants, and will be thin at the 
bottom. 

Large trees, or even six foot evergreens, 
will have formed well-established roots that 
have grown out in every direction, and they 
find it difficult to accustom themselves to 
their new cramped quarters, where they 
have free spreading room in only one direc- 
tion, and not more than a foot of space in 
the other direction. Small plants with 
young pliable roots, will easily adapt them- 
selves to a new situation; they will throw 
out roots on the two sides where they have 
free play, and not interfere with their next 
neighbour only two feet away. 

Keep all the fibrous, feeding roots; they 
are the m.ost important. Cut off the ends 
of the large roots, clean and smooth. 
Spread out the small roots horizontally, 
when planting. Fill in the earth around 
them with the hand pushing it under the 
251 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

butt of the tree so as not to leave an air 
space underneath, and working it in among 
the small roots. As the earth is filled m, 
pack it down firmly and tread it to a hard 
surface. The whole art of being success- 
ful with evergreens is in the planting. 

Do not prune the evergreens when they 
are planted. In a hedge, cut out part of the 
leaders so that the trees will spread, and 
cut off the ends of the branches slightly. 
Cover the entire surface of upturned earth 
with a mulch of manure or leaf mould at 
least four inches thick. Leave this on for 
a year, and then fork it in. 

Hemlock spruce makes the most beauti- 
ful, feathery, solid and permanent hedge. 
Taxus cuspidata divides the honours with 
hemlock, and may even outstrip her. 
Retinospara is next in beauty, and Ameri- 
can arborvitse is next in hardihood and 
service. 

Box suffruticosa is the best for edging. 
Of the privets, the California seems to be 
the favourite, and is especially adapted to 
the seashore where it flourishes in its per- 
fection, forming solid walls of green. 
Ibota privet, var. Regel, is hardy and grace- 
ful, and has the advantage that it can be 
252 



AUGUST 

planted in a single row, giving light and 
air to the whole plant. 

Privet should be pruned almost to the 
ground the first two years, so as to make 
strong growth at the bottom. It is indis- 
pensable to have privet at its best, and more 
depends on the planting and pruning than 
on the variety. 

If I have repeated myself in describing 
the planting of evergreens — a subject al- 
ready discussed during the third week of 
April — it is because the directions for set- 
ting out evergreens cannot be repeated too 
often, and also to save the reader the an- 
noyance of looking back through the vol- 
ume. So I will again emphasise the neces- 
sity of leaving an abundance of space be- 
tween the double rows of California and of 
common privet. There should be a foot or 
eighteen inches between the rows, and it 
has been suggested that the trench should 
not be entirely filled in until the plants have 
begun to grow, so as to prevent the leggy 
appearance at the bottom. 



'25$ 



SEPTEMBER 

First Week 

" But here, innumerous, disordered, many-coloured, 

tumultuous, drunk with dawns and noons, come the 
luminous dances of the daughters of Summer." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

"Where even the bee has time to glide 
(Gathering gayly his honey's store) 
Right to the heart of the old-world flowers — 
China-asters and purple stocks, 
Dahlias and tall red holly-hocks, 

Laburnums raining their golden showers 
Columbines prim of the folded core. 
And lupins, and larkspurs, and ' London 
Pride ' . . ." — Violet Fane. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF SEPTEMBER ARE; 

"Autumn Sun" iRndbeckia nitida) 

Flame Flower {Tritoma) 

Shasta daisy 

Anemone Japonica 

Sunflowers (Helianthus Meteor, etc.) 

Day lily (Fitnkia siibcordata) 

Dahlias 

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) 

Salvia 

Hydrangea 

Althea 

255 



SnCCESS IN GARDENING 

Fall grading may be done at any time 
during the open months, from the middle of 
August until the middle of November. 
But in case any seeding or planting is to 
follow afterwards, it is well to have the 
grading finished in September. If one is 
willing to wait, and do things in the best 
way, the lawn should be ploughed and 
graded now, then left to settle and mellow 
through the wi-nter. In the spring it will 
need another layer of dirt, and to be 
tamped, evened, raked, and sown with grass 
seed. 

Under the first week in April, grading 
was described in detail, and it will scarcely 
be necessary to repeat the suggestions. 
There are two essential points in good grad- 
ing: underdrainage, and overdrainage ; the 
preparation of the soil, and the slope of the 
land. Water should be able to run through 
the ground, and off the surface in the right 
direction ; it should never be allowed to set- 
tle on any part of the ground. 

The land must slope gently away from 

the house, so as to carry the surface water 

away from the cellar, but as low-lying 

houses are now the fashion, this slope must I 

256 



SEPTEMBER 

be very slight. The lawn should also slope 
away at the edges, and have an almost im- 
perceptible rise in the middle. This slight 
crown in the centre, not only prevents the 
water from settling, but gives a level ap- 
pearance with no suggestion of mere flat- 
ness. As in the scientific building of 
gothic cathedrals, a line was often made 
to bend in order to appear straight to the 
eye, in the science of grading a line is often 
made to curve up in order to appear level. 
A perfectly flat surface will often look con- 
cave. 

If the lot has a natural and considerable 
slope, the style of the garden must be de- 
cided on, before the grading is begun. And 
the style of the garden wall of course de- 
pend on the size and general lines of the 
house. A formal garden near the house, 
on sloping land, will necessitate the cutting 
out and levelling of the ground in a series 
of terraces. Formality demands straight 
lines, not curves, and no one would lay out 
a formal garden on a slope. 

But if the garden is to be picturesque 
and informal, then the drop in the land 
should be treated as a gradual slope, leav- 
257 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

ing a level space around the house. A steep 
drop may have one or two curving banks, 
v^ith a gradual slope betv^een. 

After determining the grade, prepare the 
ground by ploughing deeply and repeatedly 
into the subsoil. If the land is low and 
springy, trenches should be dug about forty 
feet apart, and drains laid of tiles or flat 
stones at a depth of at least three feet. As 
the drain should be below frost it may be 
necessary to lay it three and a half, or four 
feet deep, in cold climates. Even a hard, 
clayey soil will be greatly improved by 
drainage. 

The tiles or stones must be covered first 
with sods or straw to prevent the dirt from 
filtering through, and then the earth may be 
filled in. Deep ploughing into the subsoil 
may take the place of trenching and drain- 
ing, but the lawn will not be as permanent, 
and after some years will have a tendency 
to " sour." 

The top soil should be rich and black, to 
a depth of eight inches. And the earth 
must be enriched with manure, and thor- 
oughly pulverised; the manure for lawns 
need not be as well-rotted as for flower 
258 



SEPTEMBER 

beds. The surface must be harrowed, 
evened with shovels and tamped, then left 
to settle during the winter. Often another 
layer of dirt will be needed after tamping, 
and in that case the final surface must be 
again tamped. 

If necessary the seeding may be done now 
as described under the first week of April. 

Few of us take the trouble to have fall- 
flowering bulbs, yet an autumn crocus is a 
charming surprise, and cheats us into 
thinking that spring has o'erleaped winter 
and arrived ahead of time. The sativus, 
or saffron crocus, harmonises with the fall 
colours, with the marigolds and the golden 
maples. Zonatus is a pale lilac variety; 
then the three speciosus varieties are all 
good, the bright blue, the white, albus, and 
the aitchisoni ; iridiflorus is a purple vari- 
ety with a deep bluish cast. 

Colchicum is another bulb that has 
autumn-flowering varieties, autumnale ma- 
jor, minor, and album; also flore pleno. 

All bulbs except some of the lilies are 

partial to a light soil. Small bulbs should 

be set from two to three inches deep, with a 

handful of sand under each bulb. These 

259 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

fall-flowering varieties should be planted in 
a permanent position and left undisturbed 
until they grow too thick; they will not 
bloom until a year from the fall they are 
planted. 

The fall season for planting lilies ex- 
tends over three months. Lilium can- 
didum, called the white Madonna lily, 
should be in the ground by the middle of 
September. All American grown lilies 
may be planted by the middle of October, 
but the European and Japanese bulbs do not 
arrive until the end of October and Novem- 
ber. 

Lilies may be planted in a bed prepared 
in the same way as the rhododendron and 
azalea beds, that is, dug down three feet 
with a foot of broken stone at the bottom 
for drainage. The soil should be light and 
rich, a mixture of good earth, well-rotted 
manure, leaf-mould, and sand. It is not 
always necessary to plant them in an under- 
drained bed, if the position is dry, and the 
soil light and rich. Some varieties even 
prefer a heavy soil. So that, as a rule, 
any well-prepared bed that has been dug 
down two feet may be used. 

Always keep the different varieties of 
260 



SEPTEMBER 

lilies separate, and plant them in groups of 
ten or a dozen. As with all bulbs, set them 
in a handful of sand, and the candidum 
may be placed six or eight inches deep. 



I 



261 



SECOND WEEK 

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a 
hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life,— 
this is the commonest delight of the race, the most 
satisfactory thing a man can do . . . The man 
who has planted a garden feels that he has done 
something for the good of the world." 

— Charles Dudley Warner. 

This week may be reserved for planting 
spring-flowering perennials. The gor- 
geous Oriental poppies, the most sensa- 
tional of garden flowers, return compound 
interest on the first investment. They are 
rapid reproducers, and not only can be di- 
vided, but they self-sow. Seeds should be 
sown in the position where they are to 
grow, and need not be transplanted. The 
small plants cost ten dollars a hundred, and 
if one starts with no more than a dozen, in 
a few years these will multiply with such 
rapidity as to fill several borders, with a 
surplus to give away. 

The scarlet Orientals do not mix har- 
moniously with other colours, except with 
white or light and ultramarine blue such as 
262 



I 



SEPTEMBER 

the iris blue. They look especially well 
along a winding, half -shady path among 
shrubbery; the masses of green modify and 
frame the intense colour of the poppy. 

Much has been said in praise of phloxes, 
and I will refrain from expressing any per- 
sonal prejudice. In their favour it can at 
least be said that they are reliable, and 
what they lack in quality, they make up in 
tenacity. They have the merit of cheer- 
fulness and of dogged perseverance — dem- 
ocratic to the core of their round, uniform, 
mediocre, tightly massed heads of bloom. 
If we must have them in our gardens, let 
us get the best, with clear, strong colours, 
and avoid those that bleach in the sun to a 
sickly purplish-pink, or that have the mon- 
grel magenta tinge. Select a few varieties 
— not more than five or six — and mass 
them separately, or two colours together: 
a group of pure white and pure lilac mixed ; 
a group of salmon alone; another group of 
different shades of cherry and carmine that 
blend, mixed with pure white. And I have 
seen a long path edged only with broad, un- 
broken masses of lilac phloxes against 
green shrubbery that moved and melted 
even my bigoted prejudice. 
263 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

The main thing to remember is that no 
one wants just phloxes; we want choice 
phloxes with clear, pure colours, and with- 
out the " eye." Hardy phloxes cost not 
more than a dollar and a half per dozen, 
and later they can be divided. 

Be sure to keep the faded heads of the 
phloxes cut off; this will help them in their 
continuous bloom. They need a rich soil; 
dig down two feet, put a layer of manure 
at the bottom, mix manure freely with the 
top soil, set them eighteen inches apart, and 
mulch with manure. They will be grate- 
ful, too, for frequent watering, and will 
want a winter protection of leaves — de- 
cidedly exacting, considering that they are 
not the aristocrats of the garden, but just 
plain folk. And they must be dug up in 
three years, divided, the dead parts cut off, 
and reset. It is even better to buy new 
plants every three years. 

Delphiniums may be planted now, al- 
though it is better to plant them in the 
spring — the formosum and formosum 
coelestinum and grandiflorum, belladonna, 
king of delphiniums, the white hybridum 
moerheimi, the Gold Medal hybrids, th^ 
264 



SEPTEMBER 

English mixed, the gentian-blue Lamartin, 
and some of the newer hybrids. I fail to 
understand why one should plant plebeian 
flowers when one may have royal delphini- 
ums. Even those who believe in democ- 
racy in government, may safely and wisely 
advocate aristocracy in the garden. 

Delphiniums are easy to cultivate; they 
are not exacting as to position, soil, or treat- 
ment, but respond freely to moderate care. 
A well-drained, friable loam is the best soil; 
but they will flourish in clay half mixed 
with sand. Dig the bed at least eighteen 
inches deep, and mix in a quantity of well- 
rotted manure. Set the plants from two to 
two and a half feet apart. All the vari- 
eties of dark and light blue, and white, may 
be planted together, in masses against the 
house or fence, at the back of borders, 
among shrubbery. They are picturesque 
and effective in any position; they are ro- 
bust and hardy, and have few diseases. If 
attacked by fungus, the plant should be cut 
down. Slugs or worms are their only 
other enemy, and these may be kept away 
by coal ashes strewn over and around the 
crowns in late autumn. Our plants have 
265 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

always been healthy, even without the use 
of coal ashes. They thrive better if wa- 
tered in dry weather. 

Seeds may be saved from the first crop 
of delphinium blooms, dried, and sown at 
once. But better returns come from cut- 
ting down each stalk as soon as the flowers 
have fallen, and the plant will immediately 
send up fresh stalks. One may have from 
two to four crops of flowers during the 
season, and the colour and size of the 
blooms will be improved by digging in a 
handful of bone meal around the roots 
when the stalk is cut down. It is the best 
policy to secure in this way continuous 
bloom from the end of June until October, 
and to buy the small plants which cost from 
one dollar and a half to four dollars a 
dozen. 

Another indispensable, spring-flowering 
perennial is the charming aquilegia or col- 
umbine. From May to August they add 
piquant and sprightly airiness to any bor- 
der. Plant them on the front edge where 
their delicate and dainty beauty will be seen. 
Look at the grace and dash with which they 
wear their spurs! 

They like sun and moisture; a sandy 
266 



SEPTEMBER 

loam is the best soil, but they will flourish 
in any well-made and well-drained border. 

One of the earliest to bloom is the can- 
adensis, the native American columbine, 
with bright red and yellow colouring; plant 
these in a group alone, or near some of the 
late tulips, and Ghent and Mollis azaleas. 
Another early aquilegia is the lovely 
coerulea, the bright blue and white colum- 
bine of the Rocky Mountains, which blends 
in colouring with some of the blue Irises. 
The coerulea candidissima is a pure white 
variety, and the Siberian glandulosa is in 
blue and white. 

Among the June flowering columbines, 
good combinations may be made with skin- 
neri, the Mexican variety and chrysantha 
alba; another with californica, jsetschauri, 
chrysantha and chrysantha alba. The 
delicatissima is a soft rose which must be 
apart with white varieties. Then, too, 
there are some late blues, the European 
alpina, glandulosa vera, Helense Stuarti, 
which may be massed with the various 
white varieties, of which the nivea grandi- 
flora is one, or with the light yellow 
coerulea lutea, or the mauve Olympica. 
Then there are the haylodgensis, hybrids 

2^7 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

of the coerulea, with unusually large flow- 
ers and long spurs. The oxysepala is a 
rare variety not often appearing on the 
catalogues. 

An effective spring-flowering perennial is 
dictamnus or gas plant, with tall spikes of 
white flowers, which may be planted with 
Oriental poppies and make a good offset to 
their flaunting scarlet. The odour of the 
gas plant is not agreeable and so strong that 
we were obliged to move them from a bed 
near the house to the further end of the 
garden. But at a distance they are inof- 
fensive in smell, and emphatic in form. 

The hemerocalis, or yellow day lily, 
has no strong or characteristic features to 
recommend it, except its large, low-lying 
green leaves, but it sometimes fills a gap 
and covers the ground. 

A second period for sowing pansy seeds 
is in early fall, in order to secure early 
bloom in the spring. If the small plants 
are protected in winter with leaves or other 
covering, there will be continuous bloom 
from the first days of spring until the mid- 
summer heat. This is the best time for 
sowing particularly in the South and on the 

Pacific coast. 

268 



SEPTEMBER 

Sow the seeds in shallow furrows in a 
seed bed. The soil should be rich, and 
mixed with well-rotted and pulverised 
manure, but as pansies are shallow rooted 
the bed need not be dug deep. The sur- 
face must be smooth and level. Draw a 
furrow not more than one-sixteenth of an 
inch deep with the end of any sharp instru- 
ment. After sowing, spread the earth 
evenly over them, and pat down with the 
back of a spade. 

The bed will need to be watered, and 
should be shaded from the light and heat 
until the young plants are up. They must 
then be gradually accustomed to the light, 
and the earth stirred frequently to admit 
air and moisture. Transplant the small 
plants from the seed-bed before they become 
crowded and spindling, when they have 
formed four leaves. 



269 



THIRD WEEK 

" Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 
Conspiring with him now to load and bless 
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; 
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, 
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 
And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
Until they think warm days will never cease; 
For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells." 

— Keats. 

Bulbs may be planted at any time between 
the first week in September and the first 
week in November, but if ordered from 
Holland they will not be delivered until 
about the middle of September. 

Among the first bulbs to be planted are 
narcissi; they make early growth in the 
spring, and it is therefore well to plant 
them as early as possible in the fall. The 
narcissus is to spring what the rose is to 
summer — the flower that best represents 
the spirit of the season. I do not intend to 
270 



SEPTEMBER 

rhapsodise over the narcissus — that is not 
my sphere. In fact a certain lake poet has 
on. that score most effectually closed the 
mouths of all succeeding poets or prosers. 

But the practical person may be allowed 
to say that the season of the narcissus 
should be in every way prolonged, and our 
aim is made easy by the quantity and suc- 
cession of varieties. If we plant generous 
groups of the early, middle, and late bloom- 
ing species, in different parts of the gar- 
den, we shall lengthen out the season by 
several weeks. In an unusually warm and 
protected position, the same variety will 
bloom two or three weeks earlier than in a 
shady place wath heavy soil. 

Of the early-blooming narcissi, good 
varieties are the yellow trumpets Golden 
Spur, Obvallaris, and Henry Irving; the 
bicolor, Victoria; the all-white trumpets 
Albicans, and Mrs. Thompson; the cup and 
saucer varieties, incomparabilis Queen Bess, 
and Sir Watkin. 

In the middle season come the superb yel- 
low trumpet Emperor, and the white and 
yellow Empress, one of the most beautiful 
of the trumpets, also the Horsfieldi; the 
white trumpet William Goldring; and the 
271 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

cup and saucer incomparabilis Stella Su- 
perba. 

In the late-blooming group there are 
some beautiful varieties, such as the yellow 
trumpet Glory of Leiden, the bicolor Mad- 
ame Plemp, and the all-white Madame de 
Graaff; also the incomparabilis Gloria 
Mundi. 

Besides these are the Barri conspicuus, 
Maurice de Vilmorin, the incomparabilis 
Sirius and Aureole; the Leedsi Ariadne, 
Mrs. Langtry, Duchess of Westminster, 
and Peach; the white trumpet Mrs. Camm, 
and Madame M. de Graff. Among the 
double narcissi, are the incomparabilis 
plenus, Orange Phoenix, Sulphur Phoenix, 
and double Van Sion. 

None of the varieties mentioned above 
are expensive, costing, with few exceptions, 
from two to three dollars a hundred. Some 
of the Leedsi group are somewhat higher 
in price, from four to seven dollars per 
hundred; the lovely Madame de Graff is 
ten to twelve dollars, and also Glory of 
Leiden. And Gloria Mundi reaches up to 
eighteen dollars. These are approximate 
prices for bulbs imported direct from Hol- 
land, and based on the catalogue of the 
272 



I 



SEPTEMBER 

Dutch firm. I have added a margin to 
cover duty and portage, but this depends so 
much on the size of the order that it can- 
not be estimated exactly, except by the per- 
son ordering. 

A good assortment of the best low-priced 
varieties would be: Golden Spur, Henry 
Irving, Emperor, Empress, Maximus, 
Horsfieldi, Victoria, Barri conspicuus, de 
Vilmorin; incomparabilis Queen Bess, Sir 
Watkin, Stella alba. Also Grandee, Mrs. 
Langtry, and Mrs. Thompson. 

Of the clustered poetaz narcissi, the 
Alsace, Aspasia, and Elvira are good rea- 
sonable varieties. Then one should have a 
thousand of the exquisite narcissus poet- 
icus (pheasant's eye) at about five dollars 
a thousand. Other lovely kinds of the 
poet's flower are the poeticus ornatus, 
grandiflora, poetarum. Glory, and King Ed- 
ward VII. 

A large number of the varieties I have 
enumerated have been grown in our gar- 
den, in a glory of golden yellow, and 
creamy white. But for the unlimited purse, 
and the collector of garden rarities, there 
are expensive novelties, such as Oriflamme, 
Duke of Bedford, Coronation, Lucifer, 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

King Alfred, Maggie May, Richard 
Strauss, and Tresserve. These are not 
often found on American catalogues, but 
can be obtained from Holland firms. 

Bulbs do not like a rich soil, but on the 
contrary, prefer almost a meagre soil. Our 
most successful border was simply spaded 
up, to the depth of about sixteen inches, 
and the bulbs planted in a handful of sand; 
but the earth was in itself good garden top 
soil. I have read the following directions 
given by a reliable grower : " mix one-third 
sand, one-third well rotted cow-manure and 
one-third good garden mould." 

The bed should be raised several inches 
above the surrounding level; and whatever 
the soil, it is safe to plant each bulb in a 
handful of sand. Do not use bone fer- 
tilisers. Plant narcissus bulbs about five 
inches apart, and four or five inches deep. 
A good implement to use in planting bulbs is 
what might be called a hollow dibber; it is 
a serviceable and simple affair which has 
proved the best for the purpose, and can be 
made at any local hardware store. It is 
nothing more than a large apple corer, made 
of galvanised iron, twelve inches long, and 
two and a half inches in diameter. At the 
274 



SEPTEMBER 

top, about an inch below the edge, an iron 
socket is run through the body of the corer 
and firmly soldered; the socket is four 
inches long and one inch in diameter, and 
is intended to hold a round wooden handle 
about twelve inches long. 

One can set bulbs at the rate of six 
a minute, with this earth corer. Have a 
box of sand conveniently near ; thrust down 
the corer to the proper depth for the bulb; 
with the left hand drop in some sand, with 
the right hand place the bulb on the sand, 
then fill in with soil. When all are planted, 
rake the surface carefully and evenly. 
After the first frost, cover the bed with a 
mulch of leaves or dry litter, four to six 
inches deep, but do not use manure. 

Keep the different varieties of narcissus 
separate, and plant them either along the 
front edge of a border, or in large and ir- 
regular groups against a background of 
green, a wall or fence. The poeticus may 
fill in a bed of flowering peach or crab 
trees, or dogwood; they may be added to 
almost any border, or planted along the 
edge of woods. 

It is a fad to " naturalise " narcissi and 
crocuses in the grass, but the effect is often 
275 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

to civilise them. If we naturalise, let us 
by all means copy Nature. Bulbs in a 
clipped lawn are not natural; they are arti- 
ficial; they lose character and lack back- 
ground. But blooming by the thousand in 
an orchard, along a brookside, or in a field 
where the grass is left to grow and ripen, 
the effect is entrancing. 

I remember, in the Tyrol, fields of wild 
anemones, blue, pink, and white, spreading 
down the hillsides in waves of colour, that 
held one spellbound with their bewildering 
and fairy beauty. It was in September. 
The first crop of grass had been harvested, 
and the second crop was half -grown, mak- 
ing a soft bed of green and brown, falling 
downward in undulating slopes and curves 
to the valley below. Masses of woods and 
brush broke the fields with irregular bound- 
aries and divisions, and the million anem- 
ones raced and tumbled down the slopes 
with the ease and irregularity that only Na- 
ture can give and we can never hope to 
copy. 



276 






FOURTH WEEK 

". . . The garden scent 
Brings back some brief-winged bright sensation 
Of love that came and love that went." 

— Austin Dobson. 

" Nothing of beauty dies without having purified 
something, nor can aught of beauty be lost. Let us 
not be afraid of sowing it along the road." 

— Maurice Maeterlinck. 

This may be taken for peony week. 
Many writers on gardening and some nurs- 
erymen urge us to plant peonies the first 
week in September. But the peony spe- 
cialist, Mr. George H. Peterson, recom- 
mends waiting until after the middle of 
September, and backs his opinion with 
sound reasoning. I feel therefore inclined 
to accept his dictum, especially as it agrees 
with our own experience. We have had 
superb results from our plantings, which 
have never been made before October, and 
if we reserve the last week of September 
for planting, transplanting, dividing, and 
277 



{ 






SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

resetting herbaceous peonies, we shall have 
chosen a safe middle course. 

There are few flowers that make so se- 
cure an investment, or pay such high divi- 
dends; few flowers that endure neglect so 
valiantly, or flourish under fair treatment 
so luxuriantly. They require little protec- 
tion, do not die out, rarely are attacked by 
disease, never stint their bloom. They are 
among the most sensational and reliable as- 
sets of the garden — an unusual combina- 
tion. 

We want peonies by the hundred, or, if 
our garden is small, by the dozen. And 
we want them massed, from six to two 
dozen together. It is only the tree-peony 
that looks well standing alone. 

Some of the new varieties have a rich, 
deep, mellow quality, or a delicate crisp tex- 
ture, that makes them unusual, and far 
removed from the ordinary and somewhat 
superficial character of the old-fashioned 
peony. Here are the names of some of the 
choice kinds of double peonies: Marie Le- 
moine, Candidissima, Festiva maxima, Dor- 
chester, Avalanche (all of above white, 
ivory, or cream). Lady Leonora Bramwell 
(silvery rose), L'Esperance (rose), Perfec- 
278 



SEPTEMBER 

tion (light pink), Delicatissima (clear 
pink), Claire Dubois (glossy pink), Be- 
ranger (mauve-pink), Felix Crousse (bril- 
liant red), Rubra Superba (crimson), Louis 
Van Houtte (bright violet-red). Some of 
the single varieties have charm and distinc- 
tion, the Tenuifolia (bright crimson), and 
the beautiful Japanese v^hite and Dragon 
(dark crimson). 

Other varieties, attractive either for their 
form, colouring, or fragrance, are : La 
Tulipe (flesh pink, striped carmine), Philo- 
mele (golden yellow, and soft pink), De 
CandoUe (brilliant currant), Mad. Calot 
(salmon- white). Mad. Crousse (white, 
edged carmine, fragrant), Couronne D'Or 
(white and yellow), Wittmanniana (Cau- 
casian, sulphur yellow). This last group 
of names are taken from Peterson's cata- 
logue, with the exception of Whittmanniana 
which appears on the Dutch list, and are 
not given from personal experience. They 
are also more expensive than the first 
group. 

Prices of peonies vary largely. It is to 

be presumed that a specialist has choicer 

plants, but he has also higher prices, and 

any large, reliable nurseryman will provide 

279 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

satisfactory roots. The best kinds are not 
cheap — ' they cost as much as the usual run 
of roses, but serve an entirely different pur- 
pose. For distant massing, brilliant bloom, 
and gorgeous colour effects, they have no 
rivals that are equally hardy and easy to 
cultivate. 

Get freshly dug roots, and have them 
sent by express. Strong two-year-old roots 
of standard varieties cost about three dol- 
lars per dozen, and eighteen dollars per hun- 
dred; these will not bloom profusely the 
first year. Three-year old roots are priced 
at from five to seven dollars per dozen. It 
will be found profitable to buy a few five- 
year old clumps that have not been divided, 
at an average of ten dollars a dozen. If 
these clumps are planted without being sep- 
arated, there will be a profusion of bloom 
the first spring ; the following fall they may 
be divided, and from the first dozen clumps 
one will get five dozen plants. This is one 
of the good qualities of peonies that they 
multiply from year to year. 

An open, sunny position is good for 
peonies, although they flourish even in a 
half-shady place. But they require a me- 
dium rich, deep soil. Dig down two feet, 
280 



SEPTEMBER 

pulverise the soil to a powder and mix with 
one-fourth of well-rotted manure; if the 
soil is not rich, get some garden muck or 
compost and mix with it. Plant the roots 
so that the tip of the crown will be covered 
with two inches of soil. Mulch lightly the 
newly planted bed. 

If the planting cannot be done early in 
September, any time before October loth 
will be favourable, but the earlier it is done, 
the better the roots will set, and the more 
profuse will be the bloom in the spring. 

Any well-established herbaceous peren- 
nials, phlox, hollyhocks, Oriental poppies, 
may be divided and reset at this time. Sep- 
arate the phlox into bunches of three or 
four stalks each; enrich the soil, or replant 
in new beds. It is w^ell not to be too eager 
in this matter of dividing roots ; wait at 
least three seasons of flowering before dig- 
ging up the plants. 

At this time one should watch for stock 
shoots on grafted lilacs and cut them as 
far down as possible below the level of the 
ground. 

Those who are planning to have hya- 
cinths in their spring garden may set them 
out now. But, beautiful as they are in 
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SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

themselves, and for house culture, we have 
yet to find the ideal way to place and plant 
them in the garden. In round beds by 
themselves, of uniform size and height, they 
are hopelessly stiff and artificial. The best 
regular arrangement would be to edge a 
long or curving border with bulbs of differ- 
ent sizes, so as to make ease of line by 
varying the height. If planted in masses, 
have the groups of irregular outline, if pos- 
sible with a background or near higher 
growing plants, and keep the colours sep- 
arate. 

It would be well to choose two colours, 
and limit oneself to those : either the pinks, 
toning into reds, with white; or the laven- 
ders shading into purple, also with white. 
The hyacinth blues are not as beautiful as 
the wonderful shades of pink, and indeed 
are not so good as the blues of the smaller 
bulbs, but they would serve well to continue 
the colour scheme in a blue and white gar- 
den. Tastes differ, but I should select the 
light and dark blues, rather than the porce- 
lain blues. 

Van Tubergen's catalogue is one of the 
best for reference, in studying varieties of 
hyacinths. The early flowering kinds are 
282 



I 



SEPTEMBER 

clearly marked, so that one may arrange to 
have a succession of bloom. Among the 
dark blues, Menelik and King of the Blues 
are some of the best, and of the light blues 
La Peyrouse, Enchantress (early), Queen 
of the Blues, and Perle Brillante. Of the 
pure whites, to mix with the blues. La 
Grandesse and White Lady (early). 

Good rosy whites to combine with pinks 
are La Franchise (early), and Madame van 
der Hoop. Two fine carmines are Etna 
and Roi des Beiges; La Victoire is a good 
red and very early, but more expensive ; an- 
other early red, and lower priced is Gen- 
eral Pelissier. 

The consistency of the hyacinth petal 
takes a lovely tone of pink, both pale and 
deep. It is the characteristic colour of the 
flower. Gertrude is an early deep rose, and 
also Koh-i-nohr. In the pale rose there are 
Jacques, Gigantea (early), Cavaignac, 
Baron van Thuyll (early), and many others 
equally good. 

Hon. Mr. Balfour is an early violet, Dis- 
tinction an early dark reddish purple; then 
for late bloomers in this class of colour, 
there are L'Esperance, dark purple, and 

Charles Dickens lilac or mauve. The yel- 
283 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

lows are not so desirable, unless one has a 
yellow close in the garden, and then the 
hyacinth helps to carry on the succession 
of bloom; City of Haarlem and Ida are 
early yellows, and King of the yellows, and 
Obelisk are later varieties. 

Always select single hyacinths, not the 
double varieties. 

The Elliott Nursery in Pittsburg, Penn., 
has fine quality bulbs, and many of the 
varieties are no more expensive than those 
ordered direct from the Holland firms. 
But one's order must have been entered not 
later than the first of July, which is not al- 
ways convenient or feasible. 

Hyacinths are the most expensive of the 
early bulbs, but they need not be bought in 
such quantities as crocuses or narcissi. 
By ordering twenty-five of a kind, one can 
secure the hundred rates. The varieties 
that I have mentioned cost from seven and 
a half to eighteen dollars per hundred. 

Hyacinths require a sunny position, and 
a light soil, a good sandy loam, mixed with 
well-rotted manure. Do not let the manure 
touch the bulb, and, to avoid this, use a 
little sand in planting, as with other bulbs. 



SEPTEMBER 

Hyacinth bulbs should be set at least five 
or six inches deep according to the soil ; in 
light ground they may be set deeper than 
in heavy soil. 



I 



285 



OCTOBER 

First Week 

"In my Autumn garden I was fain 
To mourn among my scattered roses; 
Alas for that rosebud which uncloses 
To Autumn's languid sun and rain 
When all the world is on the wane! 
Which has not felt the sweet restraint of June, 
Nor heard the nightingale in tune. 

" Broad-faced asters by my garden walk, 

You are but coarse compared with roses; 
More choice, more dear that rosebud which un- 
closes, 
Faint-scented, pinched, upon its stock, 
That least and last, which cold winds balk; 
A rose it is though least and last of all, 
A rose to me though at the fall." 

— Christina G. Rossetti. 

FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE MONTH 
OF OCTOBER ARE: 

Anemone Japonica 

Chrysanthemums 

Sun-Flowers {Maximiliana, giganteus, etc.) 

Colchicum autumnale 

Crocus (sativus, speciosus, iridiflorus) 

Marigolds 

Zinnias 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Snowdrops, the forerunners of all other 
flowers in the spring, should be planted by 
the thousand to be effective — in the grass, 
under trees, in the border — a large, thick 
mass, set closely so as to make a white 
ground carpet like their namesake the snow. 
Costing from five to seven dollars a thou- 
sand, it is worth having a quantity. The 
elwesi is a large and reliable variety of 
snowdrops; nevalis flore pleno a double 
variety. Some of the rarer and more ex- 
pensive kinds are caucasicus, the beautiful 
fosteri, both about twelve dollars a thou- 
sand, and the still higher priced Crimean 
galanthus, called plicatus. 

While snowdrops are effective as a ground 
cover, crocuses (seven dollars and a half per 
thousand) are better planted in a bed or bor- 
der, not sparsely and scattered, but concen- 
trated in a mass. With the small early 
bulbs it is a question of colour, not of form ; 
they lie too close to the ground to be indi- 
vidualised. And as the chief point to be 
considered is colour, we do not want to mix 
the shades and make a variegated quilt ; we 
want to group the blues and the lilacs in 
separate masses. 



OCTOBER 

The Grand Lilac crocuses are the first 
to bloom. There are also later blooming 
lilac, purple, and striped violet and white 
varieties which would plant well together, 
such as Johan, Albion, Purpurea grandi- 
flora, Madame Mina, Xerxes, and several 
others. The blues and the whites, Mont 
Blanc, King of the Whites, Hebe, An- 
tigone, Lord Palmerston, Maximilian, and 
others, may be combined with the blue 
scillas and chionodoxas. 

Then there are the yellow crocuses to 
be planted alone; or with any one of the 
other pure colours. If all the colours are 
bunched together, yellow, lilac, purple, blue, 
striped, we unavoidably recall Joseph's coat, 
which does not altogether fulfil our ideal 
of an artistic garment. Its main service 
was to be cut up, a moral we might take to 
heart. 

Do not make regular, round or square 
bedding beds of bulbs. It is time that gar- 
deners should discard this antedated, stiff, 
inflexible and petrified method of planting. 
Gardening is, or should be, a profession, not 
mere manual labour. At least it is skilled 
labour. But what gardener learns his 
289 



I 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

trade, or studies up-to-date methods? It is 
as necessary to know how and where to 
plant, as to know what to plant. 

Let us sentence the bedding bed to a 
timely death, duly execute and bury it in 
the graveyard of failures and things for- 
gotten. As for bulbs — the low early ones 
— we shall plant them in irregular masses 
along the border, or in long, broad, waving 
lines that give the effect of billows of col- 
our, or in bays and inlets against shrub- 
bery. Set the small bulbs two to three 
inches deep, always using a handful of sand 
under the bulb. 

Every garden should have five hundred, 
if not a thousand, of the lovely chionodoxa 
gigantea and lucilise, and the scilla 
sibirica, looking as though exquisite patches 
of the sky had been spread over the earth. 
These first joys of spring should be better 
known and more freely grown, even though 
they are more expensive than their prede- 
cessors : eight to ten dollars per thousand. 

Another low growing bulb is the sol- 
dierly little grape hyacinth, reminding one, 
in colour and style of growth, of a minia- 
ture closed gentian. In the catalogues it 
figures by the name of muscari, and boasts 
290 



OCTOBER 

several varieties, with different colours. 
But cobalt and azure are its characteristic 
tints. Planted closely together it makes a 
carpet of blue, and continues the royal line 
of the scillas by two weeks of bloom. In 
fact the azureum variety outstrips its sis- 
ters and blooms with the snow in February 
or early March. 

Among the later varieties of grape hya- 
cinths that follow the scillas, are the blue 
and the white botryoides, the black blue 
conicum, the bright blue elegans and Heav- 
enly Blue; then, too, the dark blue para- 
doxum, and the large-flowered polyanthum. 
There are two carneum or rosy tinted varie- 
ties. The best known kinds, botryoides 
coeruleum and album, cost from three to five 
dollars a thousand. The rest vary from 
seven to ten dollars, except the polyanthum 
which is much more expensive, and is more 
for the virtuoso than the amateur in garden- 
ing. But muscari plumosum, the feathered 
variety, should be planted by the thousand 
(six dollars). 

Another small bulb, and one that is little 

known, is the snowflake, which appears on 

some catalogues as leucojum, and on 

others as iberis. Leucojum, however, is 

291 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

the correct botanical name. It is a charm- 
ing white flower that grows in picturesque 
and graceful fashion on a low spike or 
stem. The small blossom, half bell and 
half star, is daintier than the snowdrop, 
and more airy. There is the spring or 
vernum snowflake, and the summer or 
sestivum variety; also the vernum car- 
pathicum, and the autumnale — all of these 
costing from one to two dollars per hun- 
dred. 

The two groups of fritillaria present op- 
posite palettes of colour. The yellows, 
reds, and oranges of the crown imperials 
are strong tints of which the truest are the 
maximus rubra and lutea. But these are 
expensive, twenty-five dollars per hundred, 
and could well be omitted from the usual 
garden. The meleagris or snakeshead 
species, are reasonable, and in soft off- 
shades, such as dark violet, grey lilac, pale 
rose, purple, grey spotted violet, white 
tinged with brown. Some of the names are 
Calypso, Cassandra, Emperor, Orion, and 
Sylvanus. These can be had for two and a 
half dollars per hundred. Other species of 
fritillaria are the recurva, thunbergi, pal- 
292 



OCTOBER 

lidiflora (choice and expensive), aurea 
(serviceable and reasonable). 

Trilliums bloom early the first spring if 
planted in the fall, but the Holland bulbs are 
not delivered in time for autumn planting. 
But some of the varieties may be procured 
now from American firms: erectum album, 
trillium grandiflorum and roseum, sessile 
calif ornicum, stylosum, and others. I 
doubt whether it is worth while to grow 
trilliums in a small garden, and I should 
prefer to select a small list of bulbs that will 
give a succession of bloom, and make an 
effect. 

It is better to have a small variety of 
bulbs and many of a kind, than a few of 
many kinds. I would suggest for a small 
garden, crocuses, scillas and chionodoxas, 
narcissi of several varieties, late tulips, 
and lilies. One might also try an unusual 
bulb, such as milla uniflora and violacea, a 
low-growing star-like flower that makes a 
white or a violet ground carpet if planted 
closely. The cost is only five dollars a 
thousand at the Elliott Nursery; there is 
also the milla bifiora which is not sent over 
from Holland in time for fall planting. 
293 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Either the milla or the grape hyacinth 
makes a novelty that gives the stamp of the 
unusual. And every garden should have a 
few of the salient, superb eremurus, so 
seldom seen, and of such rare value for 
strength, height, and character. 



294 



SECOND WEEK 

'* Brave flowers — that I could gallant it like you, 

And be as little vain! 
You come abroad, and make a harmless show, 

And to your beds of earth again. 
You are not proud : you know your birth : 
For your embroider'd garments are from' earth. 

** You do obey your months and times, but I 

Would have it ever Spring; 
My fate would know no Winter, never die 

Nor think of such a thing. 
O that I could my bed of earth but view 
And smile, and look as cheerfully as you ! " 

— Henry King. 

The bulbs of American grown lilies will 
now be ready for delivery, and such vari- 
eties as longiflorum, elegans, superbum, 
philadelphicum, tenui folium, canadense, 
wallacei, may be put into the ground this 
week. 

It is said that lilies have no " poor rela- 
tions." This is perhaps true, but they have 
relations that are less innocuous and more 
objectionable — some are of the vaudeville 
295 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

stripe, others belong to the harem type, 
and still others to the nouveau riche va- 
riety, and the acquaintance of these with- 
out-the-pale relations we need not seek. 

Lilies should not be planted promiscu- 
ously. We must use our faculty of selec- 
tion. In a large garden we may have space 
for many varieties, but in a small yard, we 
shall limit ourselves to a few. There are 
two classes of colour, the delicate, and the 
strong: white, rose, and gold in one group, 
orange, red, and vermilion in the opposite 
group. The two palettes do not mix har- 
moniously. 

Then there is the question of form. I 
confess to a prejudice against the extreme 
turk's-cap type, where the petals roll back 
until they meet, and when this shape is com- 
bined with spotted orange, the effect is of 
decadent rococco. 

If we are planning to have some of the 
Japanese varieties, to be set out in Novem- 
ber, we shall want only one or two of the 
native varieties. The canadense is a grace- 
ful, bell-shaped, low-growing lily, in both 
yellow and red. The superbum is our na- 
tive turk's-cap lily, orange spotted with 
crimson. Lilium grayi is a rare native 
296 



OCTOBER 

species, small and of marked colouring — 
orange dotted with purple. All of these 
varieties require shallow planting, about 
four inches deep. 

All lilies should be set with a handful of 
sand below and above the bulb, to keep wa- 
ter, manure, and rich soil from the bulb. 
But the earth should be rich and well- 
drained. If the ground is not porous, dig 
the hole three inches deeper than needed, 
and drop into the bottom pieces of broken 
brick and stones for drainage. The soil 
must be pulverised and mixed with manure, 
but great care must be taken that no manure 
or enriched soil touches the bulb. Plain 
stable manure, well-rotted and turned two 
or three times is the best; bone meal or 
other artificial fertilisers should never be 
used. 

Lilium elegans and the wallacei variety 
need deep planting, as they are Japanese 
lilies, and form roots both above and below 
the bulb. They should be set at least six 
inches below the surface. If American 
grown bulbs are used, they will be ready 
for planting now. The same may be said 
of the beautiful white longiflorum and the 
coral-red Siberian lily, tenui folium which 
297 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

dies out every two or three years, but can 
be easily raised from seed. 

In the fall should be planted the different 
species of bulbous rooted irises: the very 
early and lovely reticulata which is per- 
fectly hardy, in shades of rich maroon, pur- 
ple and gold, as low-growing and blooming 
at the same time as the crocus ; the persica, 
next to bloom, and of the same deep order 
of colouring, dark violet and blackish blue. 
Histrio and histrioides are other early 
flowering species, in brighter and lighter 
colours, principally blue. Warleyensis is 
another beautiful blue iris. 

The oncocyclus group is not hardy, and 
quickly dies out, but the regelio-cyclus race 
is said to be hardy and free-flowering. 
The form of these irises resembles the Ger- 
man species, but is of greater perfection and 
distinction. The flowers are veined on a 
soft ground of violet, brown, or purple. 
This is an expensive iris, costing as much 
per ten, as the others do per hundred. 

The two most important species of the 
bulbous irises, the Spanish and the English, 
bloom in succession, and have in common a 
certain delicacy of shape and of growth. 
They are not free-bloomers, or of long life, 
29S 



OCTOBER 

and need greater care than their sturdy Ger- 
man and Japanese cousins. They should 
be lifted and reset every two or three years. 
The Spanish require a somewhat moist sit- 
uation, and the English a dry one. None 
of these bulbous irises are as sturdily hardy 
as the rhizomatous rooted species that are 
planted in the spring. As a compensation 
they are more beautiful and aristocratic. 

Only the orchid can match the Spanish 
iris in spirited delicacy and charm. The 
colourings are rich and clear, with good 
yellows, pure whites, and fine blues; they 
also have effective shades of bronze tend- 
ing to violet and brown. 

Plant the irises two or three inches deep, 
and six inches apart, always with a handful 
of sand above and below the bulb. Noi 
commercial fertiliser should be used, but a 
good quantity of well-rotted manure mixed 
with the soil. 

Irises should be planted in masses or bor- 
ders of twenty-five to five hundred bulbs; 
the Spanish and English may be bought for 
three dollars and a half to twelve dollars 
per thousand. Reticulata, persica, histrio, 
and histrioides are as much by the hundred. 
One should avoid ordering the " mixtures 

^99 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

of all colours," or the " superfine mixtures 
of choicest varieties " ; these bulbs are al^ 
ways inferior and of less price. Order th( 
named varieties, selecting colours that will 
blend. 



300 



THIRD WEEK 

"In the other gardens 
And all up the vale, 
From the Autumn bonfirei 
See the smoke trail! 

** Pleasant Summer over 

And all the Summer flowers, 
The red fire blazes, 
The grey smoke towers. 

" Sing a song of seasons. 
Something bright in all! 
Flowers in the summer 
Fires in the Fall ! " 

— Robert Louis Stevenson. 

Fall is the best time for planting the ma- 
jority of flowering shrubs, and deciduous 
trees, at any time from the middle of Oc- 
tober until the end of November. But 
there are a few exceptions : rhododendrons, 
laurel, and azaleas, magnolias, tulips, and 
sweet-gum trees should be kept for spring 
planting, and the beds prepared now. It is 
also well not to plant in the fall, either 
birch and beech, or the flowering fruit-trees 
such as peach and plum. 
301 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

For the rest we may now set out the 
long list of flowering shrubs that make our 
gardens a mass of feathery bloom in the 
spring. There is nothing that gives so 
large a return in display for so small an ex- 
penditure of money and care as the flower- 
ing shrub. With shrubs and bulbs we n-eed 
little else in our spring garden. 

One of the earliest shrubs to bloom is the 
feathery forsythia. Plant this either in 
masses of eight to a dozen, or singly. The 
individual plant will need a background of 
some kind, such as evergreens, which make 
a strong and vivid contrast to the yellow 
blossoms. Our forsythia look well against 
the soft tinted wall that encloses the garden. 
But they miss their effect when dotted sin- 
gly on the lawn, or at intervals along a 
path. 

Barberries, on the contrary, may be 
placed in an irregular line, or singly, with 
no stage setting. They are a background 
unto themselves. As a hedge, they are 
somewhat sprangly and difficult to keep 
within bounds without too rigorous prun- 
ing. But, in the round, to borrow a term 
from sculpture, they take a good contour; 
the thunbergii or Japanese is symmetrical, 
302 



OCTOBER 

and the vulgaris purpurea is picturesque 
and rich in colour. 

Of the deutzias, the gracilis, with its 
graceful, bending sprays, makes a charm- 
ing effect as an individual, and needs little 
to emphasise its beauty. While the cre- 
nata should stand at the back of the border 
or in the shrubbery. Growing six feet 
high it makes a strong, vigorous back- 
ground for lower shrubs or plants. 

Exochorda grandiflora can effectively 
stand alone, as well as the spiraeas, but 
althaeas should be used in rows or among 
shrubbery. Lilacs are better in groups, 
viburnum in masses, and weigela nowhere, 
except the Candida which may be admitted 
to the shrubbery. 

As for hydrangeas, the paniculata can 
hold its own anywhere, either as a hedge, 
as a solitary flower-fountain, or as a stand- 
ard. Put mock orange in the shrub border, 
and plant rosa rugosas in masses. Privet 
makes a good so-called " specimen " bush, 
especially Kegel's variety, and is also useful 
for foliage effect and for backgrounds. 

Chionanthus, the white fringe, has been 
out of fashion in the past decade, but the 
grace of its drooping flowers, and the rich 
303 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

tints of its fruit are an addition to the 
shrubbery; as a "specimen" shrub its sen- 
timental quality may be too enfeebling, re- 
sembling overmuch a person who exudes 
honey, but with a background and sturdy 
companions it ceases to be enervating. 

Daphne mezereum is an early-flowering 
shrub with pink blossoms — one of the few 
pink blooming bushes of early spring. 

We must not forget " Meehan's Mallow 
Marvels," or even the well-known marsh- 
mallow, hibiscus moscheutos. Also the 
bush and the upright honeysuckle which are 
attractive singly or in the shrub border; the 
lonicera tartarica grandiflora being well- 
known, and the lonicera bella Candida a 
newer and beautiful addition. 

I know nothing of baccharis halinifolia 
except that it grows near the seashore. 
Another seaside shrub, which blooms in its 
different varieties from May to August, is 
the tamarisk. The high-bush, wild cran- 
berry is a striking shrub, and in the fall the 
red berries cover it with brilliant blotches 
of colour. It should be oftener planted in 
our gardens. 

In planting shrubs we must not alone plan 
for spring bloom, but remember also the 
304 



OCTOBER 

autumn tints when few flowers are in blos- 
som, and the long winter months, when 
every glow of colour in the garden is as 
warming to the eyes as is a fire on the 
hearth. Several of the species already 
mentioned hold their foliage late in the 
autumn and are covered with brilliant ber- 
ries, such as berberis thunbergii and vul- 
garis purpurea, rosa rugosa with its ever- 
green glossy leaves and vivid red pips. 

But to these we must add berberis ilici- 
folia which holds its holly-like foliage far 
into the winter. Of course those who live 
in the South are fortunate in being able to 
grow holly, but there is another ilex 
that we of the North may have, ilex ver- 
ticillata, the black alder, which is covered 
with bright red berries in winter. Then, 
too, there is rhus typhina, a variety of 
the sumac, and the pretty s)ariphoricarpus 
vulgaris with its coral berries. 

Dogwoods are beautiful in the fall, and 
the thorn, Crataegus cordata, which is a 
small tree rather than a shrub, holds its 
red fruit until after Christmas. In con- 
trast to the scarlet berry of the thorn, is 
the beautiful violet purple fruit of calli- 
carpa purpurea. 

305 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

These shrubs for winter colour will be 
planted here and there among the shrubbery, 
against the hedge or fence, and in places 
that may be seen from the house. A few 
of the lower winter bushes may even be 
planted near the house, among the masses 
around the base and at the angles of the 
verandahs. The rugosa hybrids, and some 
of the barberries may be chosen for this pur- 
pose, together with the choice species of 
spring flowering shrubs, like deutzia gracilis, 
exochorda grandiflora, spiraea, hydrangea, 
and Kegel's privet for evergreen effect. 

The first planting of the shrub is the only 
care required, besides the yearly pruning. 
Unless the soil is rich and light, it is indis- 
pensable to prepare it; whether the shrubs 
are to be planted in a bed or singly, the 
earth should be dug out to a depth of three 
feet. Keep the top soil, and if the under 
soil is poor cart it away; but a hard pan 
may need only a mixture of sand to make 
it the right texture. Have some well-rot- 
ted manure, about one-third manure to two- 
thirds soil, pulverise and mix thoroughly to- 
gether. 

The hole for a single shrub should be 
306 



I OCTOBER 

fully five feet in diameter, and if the posi- 
tion is low or springy, put a few pieces of 
broken stone in the bottom. Fill in with 
enough earth to bring the shrub, when 
planted, to the same level as it was in the 
nursery or the woods. 
1 Shrubs should arrive with a large ball of 
earth around their roots, firmly tied in bag- 
ging. If the wxather is not favourable for 
planting when the shrubs are delivered, 
they may be heeled in until they are needed. 
But if everything is ready, prune the roots 
carefully by cutting off the broken or 
bruised root-ends; cut down the tops about 
a third of their height. Lower the shrub 
with the ball of earth, and if any of the 
roots protrude spread them out so that they 
will lie flat. Fill in the soil with the hand 
so as to cover and surround the small 
fibrous roots, and work some of the earth 
under the centre of the shrub to prevent 
leaving a hollow place which would accu- 
mulate water. When the hole is full, pack 
the earth down firmly to make a solid sur- 
face ; do this with the hands or feet, not by 
tamping. 

Newly planted shrubs may need water- 
307 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

ing if the earth is dry, but usually in the 
fall the soil is sufficiently moist not to re- 
quire additional water. But a mulch of 
leaves or straw, with manure on top, is es- 
sential. 



FOURTH WEEK 

" Happy the man whom bounteous Gods allow 
With his own Hand Paternal Grounds to plow! . . . 
Sometimes the beautqous, marriageable Vine 
He to the lusty Bridegroom Elm does join; 
Sometimes he lops the barren Trees around, 
And grafts new Life into the fruitful Wound. 
And when the Season, rich as well as gay. 
All her Autumnal Bounty does display, 
How is he pleas'd the ' increasing use to see 
Of his well-trusted Labours bend the Tree/" 

— Abraham Cowley. 

The same method may be employed for 
planting trees as for setting out shrubs. 
But trees are harder to handle and less cer- 
tain to succeed. 

Moving a large tree is a difficult opera- 
tion and should be done by an expert. 
But if an amateur wishes to take his chances 
and risk the loss of his labour, there are 
three things to remember: root-prune the 
tree several months before it is to be moved, 
so that it may slowly adjust itself, and be 
prepared for new conditions; preserve a 
large ball of earth around the roots; and 
309 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

tie the ball in wet bagging. A special wag- 
gon will be needed for hauling the tree, and 
five or six competent workmen. 

It is especially necessary to preserve all 
the fine fibrous roots that grow out of the 
ball of earth, after the root-pruning; and 
to cut smoothly any of the damaged ends 
of the larger roots. Small trees may be 
moved by the amateur without difficulty, if 
he will take the same precautions. 

In planting a tree in its new quarters, one 
of the most necessary things is to fill in the 
earth around the roots by hand, so as to 
leave no cavity underneath, and make sure 
that the earth touches all the fine feeding 
roots. When the hole is partly filled, 
several buckets of water may be poured 
down, and then the rest of the soil thrown 
in. 

As was said in the preceding chapter it 
is not advisable to plant birch or beech 
trees, or fruit trees that grow from stones, 
such as peach, plum, or almond. Remem- 
ber also not to set out magnolias, tulips, 
and sweet-gum trees until the spring. 
But the majority of deciduous shade and 
show trees are to be planted in the fall. 

Some of the best trees for the street are 
310 



OCTOBER 

catalpas, especially the speciosa, and sev- 
eral varieties of oaks, such as quercus 
coccinea, rubra, tinctoria; also the Ori- 
ental plane, and English horse chestnut. 

The poplar is valuable not so much for 
its rapid growth as for its specialised dec- 
orative effect. Unfortunately its lesser vir- 
tue has been given the first place, and our 
towns are overplanted with poplars in gro- 
tesque positions, merely because a tree of 
quick effect is wanted. They are too strik- 
ing in character to be used promiscuously, 
and require careful treatment. On a small 
lot, avoid them, unless the house and the 
lay of the land lend themselves to scenic 
effect, and one, or at most two, points of 
dramatic value are needed. Rows of pop- 
lars for street planting are striking, and 
they are also useful in masses for screens, 
but they need distance to bring out their sig- 
nificance, as on the plains of Lombardy, and 
may best be left for large estates. 

The elm should be chosen for our na- 
tional tree, and despite its enemies should 
be more freely planted. It is not so slow 
a grower as is often represented, and 
springs up with characteristic American 
spirit and vigour. We have as many as 
3" 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

fifty small elms in our garden, self-sown, 
and growing in every unexpected corner; 
some of these seedlings are thirty feet high, 
vigorous and graceful young trees. 

Fruit trees that grow from seed, such as 
apple and pear, may be planted now, and 
also all the small fruits. Grape vines for 
the arbour, trellis, or pergola, should be put 
into the ground this month. Concord, Ni- 
agara, and other strong growing kinds are 
the best for this purpose, and the most reli- 
able and noted firm for all fruits is EU- 
wanger and Barry, Rochester, N. Y. Ten 
vines of one variety will cost from one dol- 
lar to a dollar and a half, and a hundred 
vines of both the Concord and Niagara are 
priced at six dollars. 

All bulbs and tubers that will not winter 
in the ground must be taken up and stored 
in a warm, dry place. Among these are 
callas and ismene bulbs ; gladioli also should 
be lifted, the stems cut off, and kept on trays 
in a place that ranges from 50 to 60 degrees. 
In the same way the tubers of dahlias must 
be taken out of the ground and stored in the 
cellar. 

The last transplanting of perennial seed- 
lings will be done now, and the small plants 
312 



OCTOBER 

carefully covered with a mulch of leaves and 
boughs. 

In the water garden, if plant lice gather 
on the leaves of the lilies, use a weak dilu- 
tion of kerosene emulsion on the nym- 
phaeas applied only in the evening. The 
nelumbiums will not bear the kerosene, but 
tobacco water is a good substitute, applied 
with a syringe. 



313 



! 



NOVEMBER 
First and Second Weeks 

" Vestured and veiled with twilight, 
Lulled in the Winter's ease, 
Dim, and happy, and silent, 

My garden dreams by its trees . . . 

"Here is no stir of Summer, 
Here is no pulse of spring; 
Never a bud to burgeon, 
Never a bird to sing. 

"Dreams — and the kingdom of quiet! 
Only the dead leaves lie 
Over the fallen roses 
Under the shrouded sky." 

— Rosamund Marriott Watson. 

Hybrid perpetual roses may be planted 
in the late fall, but not teas or hybrid teas, 
excepting in the South. The beds should 
have been made in the spring; do not plant 
in freshly made beds. Detailed suggestions 
for planting roses were given under the 
third week in April, and it will not be neces- 
sary to repeat them here. 
315 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Well established roses will have thrown 
up long, lanky canes, and these should be cut 
down to within eight or twelve inches of the 
ground, so that they will not be lashed 
by the winter's winds and the plants weak- 
ened. 

During the first week of November the 
fallen leaves should be raked from the lawn 
and thrown lightly over all flower borders. 

The seed bed should be protected with 
straw, leaves, and boards. A good way is 
to cover the bed lightly with leaves, then 
place boards raised slightly in the middle 
like a roof, and spread over it straw and 
boughs. 

Rhododendrons must have their warm 
winter coat added to the summer mulch 
that was put on. in July. A line of boards 
placed on edge around the bed will keep the 
covering in place and show the depth of 
the mulch which should be entirely of 
leaves. 

In the rose bed pile up the earth around 
the plants and fill in the bed with cow ma- 
nure and leaves. It is an advantage to add 
the leaves in instalments; we usually make 
from two to four rakings of the lawn, 
throwing the leaves onto the beds at each 
316 



NOVEMBER 

raking. This accustoms the plants gradu- 
ally to their warm covering. 

The only bulbs left to plant are tulips 
and the European and Japanese grown 
lilies, and these may be set out after the 
rush of fall planting is over — tulips dur- 
ing the first half of November, lilies during 
the second half. 

There is greater scope for individual taste 
in these two genuses of bulbs than in all 
the rest, and greater chance, also, for dis- 
turbing colour effects. The optic nerve is 
often driven to neurasthenia by the scarlets, 
crimsons, and yellows of the early-flowering 
tulip, which seem intensified by the stiffness 
and shortness of the stems, allowing no re- 
lief of picturesque form or grace of line. 
Yet there are early tulips of charming 
colour, and the effect should be good if they 
are planted, not in round beds, but in ir- 
regular masses in the perennial border, or 
near evergreen shrubs that will serve for 
background. 

The pinks, whites-, and violets are the best 
and the most unusual colours among the 
early tulips, and one could make some 
charming combinations in pale and dark 
violet, some edged with white, always mix- 
317 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

ing pure white with them. Among the vio- 
lets are President Lincoln, Mrs. Elwes, 
Grand due de Russie, and Wouverman ; and 
there are many whites such as Due van 
Tholl maximus, Pottebakker white, Mil- 
thiades, Joost van Vondel and White Hawk. 

Then the pinks and the white with rosy 
tips are lovely together : Mrs. Cleveland and 
President Cleveland, Cottage Maid, La 
Matelot, Pink Beauty, Queen of the Nether- 
lands. Do not try to have flowers of the 
same height or that bloom together; a little 
irregularity would be a relief. As for 
" mixtures," avoid them as one would the 
smallpox. 

For those who like double tulips there 
is the same opportunity for selection: Lord 
Beaconsfield, Murillo, Salvator Rosa in 
pink. Rose Blanche, La Candeur, Blanche 
Hative in white. There are a few violets, 
too. And anyone with a reliable colour 
sense could be trusted to make a good selec- 
tion among the more vivid shades, but as to 
scarlet and vermilion, I cry mercy. 

Far more satisfactory than the short 

stemmed early tulips, are the single late 

cottage tulips with long, swaying stems, 

among which the gorgeous gesneriana 

318 



NOVEMBER 

spathulata are the most striking, and should 
be planted in quantities. Le Reve in smoke 
and old rose is a flower of distinction, and 
there are several whites, Innocence, Picotee, 
La Candeur, Royal White. 

Tulips, like the majority of bulbs prefer 
a sandy loam, and each bulb should be 
planted in a handful of sand below and 
above. Set the bulbs four inches deep, and 
six inches apart. 

Rembrandt and parrot tulips are bizarre 
species for the few, but the Darwin tulip is 
one that all should have. There are many 
shades and colours among the Darwins, but 
the characteristic tones are the soft off- 
shades, brown violet, and violet blue, rose 
lilac, soft salmon, and flesh colour, mauve, 
and heliotrope, violet black, and dark pur- 
ple, and a dozen other half-tones on the 
lower scale, like the minor key in music. 



319 



THIRD AND FOURTH WEEKS 

" Summer is gone on swallows* wings, 
And earth has buried all her flowers; 

No more the lark, or linnet sings, 
But Silence sits in faded bowers. 

There is a shadow on the plain 

Of Winter ere he comes again." 

If the foreign grown lilies have arrived 
from Europe or Japan they should be in the 
ground before it freezes. Remember that 
the soil must be moist, but light and porous, 
that each bulb is to be set in sand, and that 
the Japanese lilies need deep planting, while 
the European require more shallow plant- 
ing. The reason for this is that the Japa- 
nese send out roots above as well as below 
the bulb. 

Keep the tiger lilies for the shrubbery 
or a hidden close reserved for yellow, 
brown, and orange effects. Auratums 
should be in the choicest garden beds, and 
also the Brownii, which likes a sandy soil, 
and the excelsum varieties. Lilium rubel- 
lum and Krameri are two lovely kinds, and 
320 



NOVEMBER 

speciosum album mixes well in any environ- 
ment; it is picturesque and spirited. 

Sometimes the delivery of foreign lilies 
is very late, but it is possible to cover the 
prepared bed with three inches of manure to 
keep out the frost, and on a warm day in 
December to put in the late arrivals. This 
is preferable to keeping the bulbs until the 
spring. But if the shipments do not reach 
this side until the middle of January as 
sometimes happens, there is no choice but an 
early spring planting. 

In the second half of November the last 
raking of leaves may be made, and the beds 
finally covered in for the winter. The dried 
flower stalks, cut and laid on the leaves 
make a good loose covering, admitting the 
air and keeping the leaves in place. The 
stalks of pompon chrysanthemums, pe- 
onies, and other stiff perennials are useful in 
this way. 

We are told by some authorities not to 
mulch the beds with manure, that it is over- 
heating, and the cause of many plants " dy- 
ing out " during severe winters. But we 
have always used large quantities of manure 
with good results — cow manure on roses, 
horse manure turned three times on all 
321 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

perennial borders — but never any on rho- 
dodendrons. The manure is spread with 
the leaves evenly over the surface and about 
an inch and a half thick. 

Unless one's love of order is stronger than 
one's liking to do things in the best v^ay, a 
thin sprinkling of leaves may be left on the 
lawn to serve as winter protection. Al- 
ways leave five or six inches of grass after 
the last cutting, so that the roots will not be 
left bare to the cold. And now is the time 
to manure the lawn at least once in three 
years; a dressing of about five loads (two- 
horse loads) to the acre is recommended. 

The fall spraying of trees for the San 
Jose scale may be done in November or 
December on a day when the temperature 
is above freezing. Use " scalecide " as de- 
scribed under the third week in March, 
and for a motto take " thoroughness." As 
the scale is killed only when individually 
bathed in scalecide, and as every pair of 
scale reproduce to the number of several 
billion, the inference is inevitable that thor- 
oughness is indispensable to the life of the 
tree. 

I have been asked to describe the making 
of a compost heap. It may be begun at any 
322 



NOVEMBER 

time in the year when the ground is not 
freezing, and may be added to at all seasons. 
Possibly the most practical way will be to 
describe the making of our heap which now 
covers a space fifteen feet in diameter and 
is embowered in an enclosure of wistaria. 

The foundation was a quantity of clay 
which had been dug out of the garden when 
preparing flower beds. With the clay was 
mixed one-third to a half of sand. On this 
foundation has been thrown every kind of 
material that will gradually decay and be- 
come humus: leaves, grass cuttings from 
the lawn, faded cut flowers, dried stalks, ex- 
celsior from express packages, ever)rthing is 
grist to the compost mill. All the winter 
mulch that is lifted in the spring is put onto 
the heap, making the richest kind of muck. 

If one has not enough leaves to start 
with, it is thoroughly worth while to pay 
a dollar and a quarter a load for carting a 
couple of loads from the street where they 
would be burned and thrown to the winds. 
When I see bonfires of autumn leaves I feel 
that it is as reckless as to kindle a fire with 
dollar bills. To burn leaves and buy man- 
ure is a compound felony! Leaves are Na- 
ture's plant manna. 

323 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

A heap should be — I do not say that 
ours is — turned twice a year. And for the 
sake of appearances surround it either with 
a wire trellis covered with honeysuckle, or 
with poles for wistaria and climbing roses. 
The wistaria vines that enclose our heap 
shut out all visible signs of the useful but 
uncomely contents. 



324 



DECEMBER 

"Arrayed in a purple garment, Phoebus was 
seated on a throne sparkling with brilliant emeralds. 
On his right hand, and on his left, the Days, the 
Months, the Years, the Ages, and the Hours were 
arranged, at corresponding distances, and the fresh 
Spring was standing, crowned with a chaplet of 
blossoms; Summer was standing, wearing garlands 
made of ears of com; Autumn, too, was standing 
besmeared with the trodden-out grapes ; and icy 
Winter, rough with his hoary hair." 

— Ovid. 

Even in December, when there is no 
work in the garden, when the flowers are 
buried, and our thoughts are centred 
on the hearth fire and the new books, 
we even now unconsciously bring the gar- 
den and the woods within doors, as though 
w^e could not be separated from them. The 
Christmas tree, the holly wreaths and mistle- 
toe are the proof that for not a month in 
the year do we entirely put aside the fruits 
of the out-of-doors. 

As the godfather of modern gardening, 
wise old Bacon, said, *' you may have ver 
325 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

perpetum, as the place affords; for Decem- 
ber .... you must take such things 
as are green all Winter, holly, ivy, juniper, 
yew, fir, and periwinkle." 

But this is not all. We can make new 
plans for the future, plan out-of-the-way 
effects that we did not, at first, think to have 
— • window boxes, a wall garden, and a wild 
flower garden. 

The main point in window and porch 
boxes is to make them picturesque and va- 
ried — not, for instance, all geraniums. 
The box itself should be plain, a wooden 
box painted green, with holes in the bottom. 
The soil should be particularly rich and 
porous, and may be prepared like a minia- 
ture rhododendron bed; pebbles or clinck- 
ers in the bottom, with a layer of reversed 
sods on top to keep the drainage free. Fill 
in with rich garden loam mixed with well 
rotted manure. 

Along the outside edge plant trailing 
vines, such as tropaeolum canariensis which 
blooms all summer, Kenilworth ivy a ten- 
der perennial that will live out-of-doors in 
the summer, maurandya, thumbergia, nas- 
turtiums, trailing vinca or periwinkle, 
anitchella reptans. The evergreen trailing 
326 



DECEMBER 

plants such as vinca, Kenilworth ivy, and 
mitchella reptans need a shady exposure, 
and to these may be added wild ferns. 

Back of the drooping plants, have helio- 
trope, daisies, verbenas and petunias, or 
geraniums. Do not plant geraniums and 
petunias together as the colours clash; and 
of the geraniums select either the scarlet or 
the pink, adding a white variety in each case. 
Some of the dwarf phloxes are pretty for 
boxes, and also forget-me-nots. 

There is good reason for making upper- 
story window boxes gay with red gerani- 
ums ; they must be emphatic in order to pro- 
duce distant effect. But intimate porch 
boxes, especially if they line an outdoor liv- 
ing room, may be on a lower and soft- 
er scale of colour, and we may study 
tone schemes here as well as in our garden 
beds. 

Supposing that we have a sitting porch 
furnished with blue denim coverings and 
cushions for wicker chairs and lounge, and 
a note of blue in the rug, why should we not 
carry out the scheme in the porch boxes ? I 
have not seen blue and white flowers used in 
this way, but I can imagine them as looking 
cool and restful. White geraniums, and 
327 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

daisies, the blue phlox reptans, forget-me- 
nots, pansies, heliotrope, sweet alyssum, 
lobelias of the erinus gracilis, albus, and 
Crystal Palace compacta varieties, arabis 
alpina, the dwarf larkspur, and bell-flowers. 

On a porch furnished in green, have pink 
and white flowers, and for this nothing 
serves better than petunias — not the " ruf- 
fled and fluted " or the " striped and 
blotched, fringed and mottled," but a 
simple, clear, bright pink of dwarf habit, 
and single blooms. There are also the pink 
dwarf phlox subulata, and the white subu- 
lata. Pink geraniums do not mix with pink 
petunias or any other pink that I remember 
suitable for flower boxes. There should al- 
ways be a heavier planting of green in porch 
boxes than in window boxes. 

Rocks in a garden will look like patches 
of flame, when covered with the brilliant 
stone crops. Moss pink or phlox subulata, 
and phlox douglasii make a compact cover- 
ing, and the hare bell (campanula rotundi- 
folia), mountain sandwort (arenaria gro- 
enlandica), and white baneberry (actsea 
alba) grow well in rockeries. There is a 
native blue iris, the cristata variety, that 
thrives among rocks. 

328 



DECEMBER 

Stone walls, especially those built of 
rough, loose stones, where earth may be 
packed in the crevices, are made picturesque 
with little clinging plants, trailing vines, and 
Alpine flowers. The main care needed is 
in the planting, to fill the pockets with good 
earth, and brace the little plant with pieces 
of stone. Ferns and flowers abound for 
these wall gardens: purple cliff brake (pel- 
Isea atropurpurea) , and the white and pur- 
ple rock cress (aubrietia albida and deltoi- 
dea), Kenil worth ivy, Carpathian hare- 
bells, columbine (aquilegia canadensis), 
polypodium vulgare, an evergreen fern. 
Here we can plant candytuft without a 
pang, and the blue veronica the many var- 
ieties of stone crop will colour the grey 
wall with red and yellow, and all the varie- 
ties of dwarf hardy Asters — Alpinus, albus, 
acris, nanus — add colour and spirit. 

Such a wall of wild and picturesque 
beauty would make an effective boundary 
to a wild garden. 

Mr. Edward Gillett, whose nurseries are 
at South wick, Mass., has for many years 
made a specialty of wild flowers. One can- 
not do better than to send for his catalogue. 
He tells the correct soil for the different 
329 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

species, whether to plant in the shade or the 
open, and the idiosyncrasies of the plants. 

In a summer garden, or on a large ram- 
bling park, nothing could be more charming 
than a wild close, apart from the cultivated, 
finished garden, and seen only when looked 
for. Wild flowers should not be mixed 
with gardenesque plants; their chief charm 
is in their picturesque, independent, illusive, 
and semi-savage qualities, their inadapta- 
bility to civilisation, their wild, piquant 
grace as of the fawn. We would not tame 
a doe, or domesticate a deer; their individu- 
ality would vanish in the process, and with 
it their characteristic loveliness. 

If we have a wild garden, let it be all wild. 
We must not admit any hybrids. First 
have a shrubbery, and for this select the dif- 
ferent kinds of native azaleas, the calendu- 
lacea, nudiflora, vaseyi, and viscosa. They 
are all beautiful and effective. Then there 
are the native dogwoods, the purple and 
the common barberry, magnolia glauca, 
the wild hydrangeas, and American euony- 
mus. There are the wild laurels, and the 
beautiful native rhododendron (catawbi- 
ense) ; the lovely wild roses, blanda and 
lucida. Many other flowering shrubs are 
330 



DECEMBER 

to be found in the native species, and for 
autumn colouring we may have the dwarf 
chestnut, oak, and black alder. 

Wild ferns will add to the nature-like ef- 
fect, and there are many from which to 
choose, such as aspidum lonchitis and mar- 
ginale, and cheilanthes vestata. 

Among the wild flowers it is difficult to 
choose — there are so many. The Carolin- 
ian and Pennsylvanian anemones, and 
three varieties of columbines (aquilegia), 
coerulea, canadensis, and chrysantha, we 
shall be sure to want. There are many va- 
rieties of wild asters, and the hare bell 
(campanula rotundi folia) is too graceful to 
be omitted. It is unnecessary to go through 
the list, and each amateur must select his 
own to accord with his soil, whether it is 
dry and sandy, moist and shady, or rocky. 
But we must, if possible, have some of the 
many beautiful orchids. These will grow 
if placed in a shady position and planted in 
rich leaf-mould mixed with loam; they 
should also have a mulch of leaf-mould, 
which will keep them moist. Arethusa bul- 
bosa is a beautiful native orchid with one 
or two large purple flowers on a single 
stem. Moccason Flower and Purple 
331 



SUCCESS IN GARDENING 

Fringed Orchis are two varieties that we 
often pick in the woods (cypripedium 
acaule and habenaria fimbrata) and both 
bear a stalk of rose purple flowers. Ladies' 
tresses (spiranthes cernua and gracilis) 
are delicate white varieties, and there is also 
a white fringed orchid. Then, too, we 
must have the lovely violets, the long- 
spurred violet, the bird's foot, the dog 
violet, and the sweet white violet. 

At the end of the year, at the close of the 
book, in a wild garden, may I plead forgive- 
ness for giving to the flowers their folk 
names — " the names they received when 
they were loved." The spirits of the field 
flowers would rise and flee, and leave the 
world barren, if we should speak in learned 
parlance of xerophyllum asphodeloides. 
Sweet Asphodel and Nightshade, meek 
Meadow Rue and fair Rose Mallow, if we 
transplant you to our garden, let us call you 
by the names that we know and love. 

" These names show all that they were to 
man," writes Maurice Maeterlinck ; " all his 
gratitude, his studious fondness, all that he 
owed them, all that they gave him, are there 
contained . . . Our language, I think, 
contains nothing that is better, more daint- 
332 



DECEMBER 

ily, more affectionately named than these 
homely flowers. Here the word clothes the 
idea always with care, with light precision, 
with admirable happiness; it represents all 
their ingenuous and visible soul. . . . 
To tell their names is to recite a poem of 
grace and light. We have reserved for 
them the most charming, the purest, the 
clearest sounds and all the musical gladness 
of the language." 



THE END 



333 



H 17 88 



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